Representative Levin Joins Colleagues in Introducing First Major Climate Change Legislation of 116th Congress
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Mike Levin joined his colleagues in introducing the Climate Action Now Act, the first major climate change legislation of the 116th Congress. The bill would prohibit the Administration from using any federal funds to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, and would also call on the President to develop and make public a plan for how the nation will meet the pollution reduction goals in the Agreement.
Congressman Levin spoke at a press conference introducing the Climate Action Now Act with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congresswoman Kathy Castor, and other colleagues.
Click here for video or see below for a transcript of his remarks:
Thank you to Speaker Pelosi, thank you to Chair Castor. Like [Congressman Sean Casten], I’m incredibly honored to be on the Select Committee [on the Climate Crisis].
I’m standing here today because I saw what this Administration was doing to reverse our progress on climate change – embracing fossil fuel lobbyists and letting corporate polluters run free – and I decided that I personally had to do more.
I decided to run for Congress as a clean energy advocate, and I spoke frequently about the need to embrace science, and the scientific consensus that climate change is happening, that it is driven by human activity, and that if we do nothing, the consequences for our planet will be catastrophic.
Never let anyone tell you that you can’t protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time. We’re doing it in the state of California where we’ve led and we can lead in Washington as well if we’re embracing science and reality about our environment and our economy and the clean energy jobs of the future, where I was very privileged to work in that industry for about 15 years.
I’m very proud of my work we did to grow a more sustainable economy, and in my Southern California district – as is the case across this country - we are experiencing more extreme heat waves, longer droughts, more intense wildfires, rising sea levels, and unprecedented coastal erosion. We must not wait to act.
Ultimately, this is about the planet that we leave behind for future generations. My wife and I have a six-year-old and a five-year-old at home, and we’ve got to support solutions that are up to the challenges that we face, where again we embrace the science and the evidence, and allow that to drive the policy.
There is much more we must do to combat the climate crisis, but H.R. 9 is a down payment, this a step in the right direction towards setting that foundation for action on climate once again.
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