Dems’ Climate Crisis Committee Fails to Treat Climate as a Crisis

For Immediate Release
 

Washington, D.C. -- Today, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis released its long-awaited plan for responding to climate change. It recommends a goal of achieving ‘net zero’ electricity by 2040, and overall ‘net zero’ emissions a decade later.

Food & Water Action Policy Director Mitch Jones released the following statement in response:

“This climate proposal inexplicably and inexcusably fails to call for a halt to the extraction of fossil fuels. It is simply not an adequate attempt to deal with the crisis we actually face. We must take the necessary first steps: a ban on fracking, a ban on exports and imports of fossil fuels, and an immediate halt to new fossil fuel infrastructure buildout. Anything that does not seek to immediately curtail and then eliminate the production of fossil fuels is weak sauce. 

“The paltry ‘net-zero’ goals put forth by the committee would allow for continued use of dirty fossil fuels, and would rely on achieving emissions reductions from unproven, industry-backed ‘carbon capture’ technologies and market-based accounting tricks.

“It is alarming to see carbon taxes included as part of the Democrats’ proposed solution. This is no time or place for regressive policies that have already proven to be colossal failures. Fossil fuel corporations embrace these phony pricing schemes because they know that these policies only entrench their existence.

“The plan also endorses the use of biogas and factory farm manure digesters, which prop up unsustainable and dangerous agricultural practices that are contributing to the climate crisis. A bold, sensible climate plan would seek to end our use of fossil fuels and place a moratorium on polluting factory farms; this plan would do the opposite.

“A bold climate plan must call for a ban on fracking and all new fossil fuel infrastructure, and a swift and just transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy across all sectors of the economy. We have no time left to prop up false solutions that cannot meet the demands of the current crisis. The Democrats must do better -- much better.”

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