[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 120 (Tuesday, June 30, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H2677-H2678]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    SETTING U.S. ON PATH TO REACH NET-ZERO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Brownley) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. BROWNLEY of California. Mr. Speaker, in December 2017, the Thomas 
fire destroyed over 280,000 acres, with almost all of it in my district 
in Ventura County. It is the second largest wildfire in all of 
California's recorded history.
  The day it started, my constituents Trisha and Jed received a 
terrifying call. Evacuation orders were just issued. A wildfire was 
fast approaching their home, and their children were put in a car and 
whisked away.
  It was an unbearable week for Trisha and Jed. They couldn't stop 
thinking of what might have happened to their children, all while 
mourning the loss of their home that was burned to the ground, 
including the invaluable keepsakes Jed had just moved to the house 
after his father's passing.
  Natural disasters like these are becoming all too common, not only in 
Ventura County, but throughout California and the Western States.
  Floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes, from Texas to Florida and all 
along the East Coast, are increasing with alarming frequency. Glaciers 
in the Arctic are melting faster than ever before. Ocean temperatures 
have increased in the last three decades at a pace greater than 
recorded history. Sea level rise is accelerating. Atmospheric 
temperatures are also on the rise.
  These are facts. They are destroying homes. They are taking lives. 
They are wreaking havoc on our communities and communities across the 
planet.
  Over the last year and a half, the Select Committee on Climate Crisis 
has been tasked with finding bold and transformative solutions to 
tackle this global emergency.
  This report, the most comprehensive report on the impact of climate 
change and how to address it in the history of Congress, lays out 
policies, legislation, and a roadmap that will put the brakes on global 
warming while creating equitable, good-paying jobs of the future, and, 
at the same time, putting American innovation and ingenuity first.
  The select committee has written a report that identifies 12 pillars 
on which Congress can make actionable changes and sets the U.S. on a 
path of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
  The report takes a deep and wide dive into all the sectors of our 
economy that contribute to climate change, from agriculture and 
transportation to how we build our buildings; to water, electric, and 
telecommunications infrastructure; to energy production, manufacturing, 
tax policy, and national security.

  The impact of climate change is broad, and it can be addressed only 
through comprehensive and bold solutions.
  I am very proud that the select committee offers up so many of those 
solutions, and where solutions don't exist, it lays out the challenge 
that American ingenuity can and will overcome.
  Today, we face what appears to be an even more imminent crisis: a 
pandemic that has crushed the global economy and taken almost 130,000 
American lives and half a million lives worldwide.
  We are struggling with long, deep racial injustice and how to address 
it. But we will rise from this darkness, and how we rise from it will 
impact everyone on the planet, not only alive today, but for 
generations to come.
  I hope that we will search for solutions that draw on the ideals that 
created this great Nation: equity, justice, and ingenuity.
  As we rebuild our economy, let's do so by investing in the 
technologies, practices, and methods for the future and with the 
urgency of now that our changing climate demands.
  As we seek to right injustice and inequity, let's not forget the role 
the rise of American industry played in creating some of that injustice 
and inequity, as it did with the climate crisis we have before us, and 
let's choose a path forward that rights that ship.
  We are suffering now, but we should, we must, rise up with a clearer 
vision for a better future.
  Climate change provides the greatest existential threat to human 
existence, but it also offers the greatest opportunity for mankind and 
womankind to meet that threat and to beat it.

[[Page H2678]]

  I know that everyone in this Chamber came here to make their mark, to 
better their communities, to strengthen our Nation. We must seize this 
moment. We must seize it for Trisha and Jed. We must seize it for their 
children. We must seize it for their children's children.
  We must show the Nation that Congress is up to the task that is 
before us now. We must and will act now.

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