Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned President Donald Trump on Friday that any bills related to infrastructure “must” also help the U.S. transition to renewable energy.
“It is crucial that we immediately enact legislation to combat climate change and create millions of jobs. Therefore, any clean infrastructure package considered in 2019 must include policies and funding to transition to a clean energy economy and mitigate risks that the United States is already facing due to climate change,” Schumer wrote in an open letter to Trump.
Schumer made a similar vow in an op-ed released by The Washington Post on Thursday, writing that since Democrats won back control of the House they “have the power to propose, debate and pass progressive legislation” to “force action on climate change,” and added that “Senate Democrats will have substantial leverage as well. For any legislation to pass the Senate, 60 votes are required.”
The U.S. National Climate Assessment released last week warned that the “impacts of climate change are intensifying across the country, and that climate-related threats to Americans’ physical, social, and economic wellbeing are rising,” which “will continue to grow without additional action.”
“Climate change in an existential threat,” Schumer concluded in his letter. “The impacts will continue to worsen if we do not take decisive and immediate action to transition to a 100-percent clean energy economy. The challenge is immense.... A single infrastructure bill will not solve our climate problem in its entirety, but it is an important first step.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.