ELECTION 2018 RECAP

Incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said Wednesday that clean energy and climate change will be top priorities of the Committee when Democrats take control in January.

In a statement issued the morning after the election, Pallone, the current ranking Democrat, said that the Committee will " also conduct vigorous oversight of the Trump Administration, so Washington works again for the people not the special interests."

In his statement, Pallone said the Committee will "put . .. forward proposals to . . . r ebuild America by investing in green energy, drinking water and broadband infrastructure; address climate change by looking at the impacts on communities and the economy . . . and restore environmental protections gutted over the last two years. . . ."


Bloomberg
Nov. 8, 2018

House Democrats are planning to resurrect a special committee focused on climate change, giving them a platform to spotlight an issue on which polls show President Donald Trump is out of step with the public.

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) will ask her colleagues to reconstitute the select committee, which was created under her watch 11 years ago and disbanded by Republicans after they took control of the House in January 2011. The plan was described by senior Democratic aides who asked not to be named before a formal announcement.

If lawmakers vote to resurrect the panel, it would give Democrats a chance to amplify concerns about climate change following a dire United Nations report as well as scrutinize the Trump administration’s approach to the issue.


Which new member of the House served on the board of a major sustainable energy non-profit? Which incoming Congressman founded a company to finance energy efficiency improvements through PACE bonds?

Get up to speed with the newest Senators and House reps with the Agora Insider Guide to New Members of Congress.

Click here to download the Guide.


Washington Post
Nov. 9, 2018

There are a handful of House Republican lawmakers who say they are serious about confronting climate change, despite President Trump's dismissive stance toward the science that humans are permanently warming the planet.

Or at least, there were. Many of the most prominent Republicans with ideas about how to address climate change — or even acknowledging the world is warming at all — lost their reelection bids on Tuesday. More...


Forbes
Nov. 7, 2018

Advocates for clean energy and climate action became governors, attorneys general, commissioners and more on Tuesday, but some climate hawks fell. An offshore-drilling ban passed, an onshore-ban failed, and America will not be trying out its first climate tax.


Washington Post
November 8, 2018

Nationwide, at least 10 candidates for governor won their races who campaigned on aggressively moving their states away from burning fossil fuels and toward relying on renewable forms of energy for electricity.

The newly minted governors, all of them Democrats, will serve from California to Maine and aim to inch the United States closer to meeting its emissions-reduction commitments under the Paris climate agreement at a time when the federal government under Trump is largely ignoring scientists who say the world has little time to get climate change under control. More...


Washington Post
Nov. 7, 2018

In Arizona, voters said no to accelerating the shift to renewable energy. In Colorado, they said no to an effort to sharply limit drilling on nonfederal land. And a measure to make Washington the first state to tax carbon emissions appears to have fallen short.

The failure of environmental ballot measures in Arizona and Colorado — and the likely defeat of a proposa l to impose fees on carbon emissions in Washington state — underscore the difficulty of tackling a global problem such as climate change at the state and local level, where huge sums of money poured in on both sides. More...


ARCHIVES

HAVE SOMETHING TO SHARE?
Do you have a news item or announcement that would be of interest to the sustainable building policy community? Email it to [email protected] and if appropriate we will include it in a future Washington Word.
 
The Washington Word is managed by Agora on behalf of the Coalition for a Sustainable Built Environment.
Questions or comments? Let us know.
 
Copyright 2018, Coalition for a Sustainable Built Environment. All rights reserved.