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[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 540 Introduced in House (IH)]

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114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 540

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the policies 
     of the United States should support a transition to near zero 
     greenhouse gas emissions, 100 percent clean renewable energy, 
     infrastructure modernization, green jobs, full employment, a 
   sustainable economy, fair wages, affordable energy, expanding the 
     middle class, and ending poverty to promote national economic 
 competitiveness and national security and for the purpose of avoiding 
                 adverse impacts of a changing climate.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 30, 2015

 Mr. Grijalva (for himself, Ms. Clark of Massachusetts, Ms. Clarke of 
New York, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Deutch, Mr. Ellison, Mr. Honda, Mr. Johnson 
of Georgia, Ms. Lee, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Ted Lieu of California, Ms. Norton, 
Mr. Rangel, Ms. Schakowsky, Mr. Takano, Mr. Van Hollen, Mrs. Lawrence, 
Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Farr, Ms. Slaughter, Ms. Gabbard, Mr. Huffman, and 
 Mr. Cohen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee 
 on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
  Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the policies 
     of the United States should support a transition to near zero 
     greenhouse gas emissions, 100 percent clean renewable energy, 
     infrastructure modernization, green jobs, full employment, a 
   sustainable economy, fair wages, affordable energy, expanding the 
     middle class, and ending poverty to promote national economic 
 competitiveness and national security and for the purpose of avoiding 
                 adverse impacts of a changing climate.

Whereas an immense number of scientific, economic, religious, academic, 
        governmental, business, and civil society leaders believe steps must be 
        taken to limit warming by the end of the century to 2 degrees Celsius to 
        avoid catastrophic effects of climate change;
Whereas leading economists, policy experts, and business leaders conclude that 
        transitioning to a clean energy economy available for all would create 
        millions of green jobs, improve our living standards, and boost economic 
        growth in coming years;
Whereas many religious leaders and organizations in the United States and 
        worldwide have stated that we all have a moral obligation to be good 
        stewards of the Earth and that there is a moral imperative for bold 
        action on climate change;
Whereas the Department of Defense and the National Intelligence Council warn 
        that climate destabilization threatens United States national and global 
        security by contributing to increased violent conflict and failed nation 
        states suffering from water shortages, food scarcity, and poverty;
Whereas global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 parts 
        per million in 2015, a level not reached in at least 800,000 years;
Whereas atmospheric temperature measurements show an average warming of 0.85 
        degrees Celsius (1.53 degrees Fahrenheit) from 1880 to 2012 according to 
        the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 
        Fifth Assessment Report (AR5);
Whereas 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have all happened in the 21st 
        century, each of the last three decades has been hotter than the prior 
        one, and 2001 to 2010 was the warmest decade on record, according to the 
        World Meteorological Organization;
Whereas, since 1990, when the IPCC issued its First Assessment Report (AR1), 
        global carbon dioxide emissions have increased by nearly 60 percent;
Whereas an overwhelming scientific consensus of credentialed climate scientists 
        and scientists in related fields and numerous scientific and 
        governmental organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, 
        the World Meteorological Organization, the Department of Defense, the 
        National Intelligence Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
        Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the United 
        Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), support the 
        findings that climate change is happening and that human activities are 
        a key contributor to it;
Whereas the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report concludes that human emissions of 
        greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, are chiefly responsible 
        for the increases in the global average temperature;
Whereas an increase in the global average temperature, if not stopped, will have 
        major adverse impacts on both the natural and human-made environments 
        due to longer, more intense heat waves, prolonged droughts, rising sea 
        levels, ocean acidification, and more intense and frequent extreme 
        weather events;
Whereas these physical effects are expected to lead to water scarcity, food 
        insecurity, increasing numbers of refugees, increased poverty, and mass 
        extinctions of species;
Whereas United States Federal public lands and waters presently hold up to 
        490,000,000,000 metric tons of potential carbon pollution that would 
        greatly contribute to global warming if extracted and burned, and 
        interdisciplinary studies estimate that humanity must find a way to keep 
        at least 80 percent of the world's proven fossil fuel reserves in the 
        ground;
Whereas public health experts have documented the health impacts of climate 
        change, including the spread of infectious diseases, risks to worldwide 
        food and water supplies, an increase in rates of asthma and other 
        respiratory conditions, and increased human suffering and loss of life 
        due to more frequent and more intense heat waves and severe weather 
        events;
Whereas a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that air pollution 
        from power plants causes more than 50,000 premature deaths each year in 
        the United States; a Clean Air Taskforce study estimated that air 
        pollution from coal-fired power plants accounts for 20,000 heart attacks 
        and 1,600,000 lost workdays in the United States annually; a Harvard 
        Medical School report found that the public health impacts of coal costs 
        the United States economy $140,000,000,000 to $242,000,000,000 annually; 
        monitoring by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health 
        found that the most debilitating and lethal form of black lung disease 
        now affects a larger share of Appalachian coal miners than at any time 
        since the early 1970s; according to the Department of Health and Human 
        Services, black lung disease has caused or contributed to more than 
        75,000 coal miner deaths since 1968; and the Department of Labor has 
        paid over $44,000,000,000 in benefits to miners totally disabled by 
        respiratory diseases during this time;
Whereas climate change, if unchecked, will exacerbate existing inequalities;
Whereas climate change has a disproportionate adverse impact in the United 
        States and throughout the world on minority communities and those with 
        lower incomes, including those in developing nations;
Whereas extreme weather events linked to climate change exacerbate our 
        underlying economic inequities, and most of these events 
        disproportionally harm middle- and low-income families that have fewer 
        resources to prepare for and recover from these disasters;
Whereas low-income communities and communities of color in the United States are 
        inordinately exposed to pollution from fossil fuels, and the dirtiest 
        coal-fired power plants are disproportionately located in communities of 
        color;
Whereas African-Americans are three times more likely to die from asthma-related 
        causes than the White population; Latino children in the United States 
        are 40 percent more likely to die from asthma than non-Latino Whites; 
        and American Indian/Alaska Native children are 80 percent more likely to 
        have asthma as non-Hispanic White children;
Whereas many Native American communities have taken the lead in warning of the 
        dangers of climate change, possessing unique knowledge and native wisdom 
        drawn from a long history of living in sacred relationship with the 
        earth, which includes the need to live sustainably to ensure a healthy 
        planet for the next seven generations to come;
Whereas indigenous people and communities, who make up 5 percent of the world's 
        population and live sustainably off the earth, often in poverty and in 
        under-resourced areas, are especially vulnerable to a changing climate 
        that threatens their traditions and way of life, including the 
        destruction of small island communities from rising sea levels;
Whereas studies completed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Risky 
        Business Project, Duke University, and others point to the severe 
        economic costs of climate change and continuing use of fossil fuel, 
        estimating billions of dollars a year in costs nationally and trillions 
        globally;
Whereas World Bank Chief Jim Yong Kim has called for an end to fossil fuel 
        subsidies and the IMF estimates the world will pay $5.3 trillion in 
        hidden costs associated with burning fossil fuels in 2015 alone; they 
        also find that the majority of fossil fuel subsidies serve those in the 
        top two wealthiest quintiles;
Whereas climate change will likely cause a major increase in unemployment in our 
        Nation's agricultural sectors, threaten our food supply, and increase 
        the cost of fruits, vegetables, and grains for consumers due to droughts 
        and dwindling water supplies for irrigation;
Whereas likely climate-linked events in recent years that harmed American 
        agriculture and communities include a historic drought in California and 
        the Southeast, record heat waves and flooding in the Midwest, powerful 
        storms like hurricanes Katrina and Sandy in the South and Eastern United 
        States, and the widest F5 tornado ever recorded occurring in Oklahoma;
Whereas millions of jobs will be created in the transition to renewable energy, 
        the deployment of energy efficiency technology, and the development and 
        installation of energy generation projects in a variety of industries, 
        including business, manufacturing, engineering, and construction;
Whereas, in striving toward near zero emissions, we must also strive toward zero 
        waste goals that will reduce carbon emissions and create local jobs by 
        reducing the amount of waste we generate and recycling or compositing 
        the waste we can't avoid;
Whereas 42 percent of United States greenhouse gas emissions come from the 
        energy used to produce, process, transport, and dispose of the food we 
        eat and the goods we use and recycling or composting these products 
        creates 10 times more jobs than landfilling while reducing greenhouse 
        gas emissions;
Whereas the deployment of renewable technologies is rising and the cost of 
        renewable energy is falling and is quickly becoming cost-competitive 
        with conventional forms of fossil fuel-based energy generation;
Whereas fossil fuels are becoming increasingly more difficult to reach, may 
        involve deepwater oil and gas drilling, mountaintop coal removal, 
        hydraulic fracturing, and shale mining, and are resulting in increased 
        casualties, environmental damage, and costs;
Whereas a Stanford University study concludes that the United States energy 
        supply could be based entirely on renewable energy by the year 2050 
        using current technologies;
Whereas nations, municipalities, organizations, businesses, and academic 
        institutions throughout the world have set a goal to achieve carbon or 
        climate neutrality, including over 680 college and university presidents 
        who have signed the American College & University Presidents' Climate 
        Commitment; and
Whereas the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report 
        recommends a global goal of achieving near zero greenhouse gas emissions 
        or below, which is necessary to stabilize the global average temperature 
        to avoid climate catastrophe, and an unprecedented level of 
        international cooperation is urgently required between now and 2030 to 
        reduce the costs of cutting global greenhouse gas emissions: Now, 
        therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives shall--
            (1) support the achievement of near zero greenhouse gas 
        emissions nationally by January 1, 2050, through policies 
        that--
                    (A) shift the energy supply strategy of the United 
                States from fossil fuels to 100-percent clean, 
                renewable energy, including solar, wind, geothermal, 
                and other clean, renewable resources, increase energy 
                efficiency, and implement zero waste practices to end 
                dependence on fossil fuels and to promote climate 
                security, jobs for all, universal access to clean 
                energy, national economic competitiveness, and national 
                security;
            (2) establish a national goal of 50 percent of electricity 
        to be derived from renewable sources by January 1, 2030;
            (3) establish policies and programs to modernize the 
        national infrastructure for the 21st century, transition toward 
        full employment with millions of new green jobs, and build a 
        sustainable economy, focusing on historically unemployed or 
        underemployed communities;
            (4) provide educational and job training programs, 
        transitional financial assistance, and job opportunities for 
        coal miners and other fossil fuel industry workers displaced 
        due to the transition to a renewable energy-based economy;
            (5) provide retraining and re-employment opportunities in 
        green jobs for military veterans, including those returning 
        from military service in Iraq and Afghanistan;
            (6) provide increased funding for educational, training, 
        and job assistance programs for rural residents and for 
        increased emergency preparation and assistance to damaged rural 
        communities due to the adverse impacts of climate change;
            (7) help the people of the United States to establish 
        resiliency to withstand the significant impacts of climate 
        change that are already occurring and that are expected to 
        accelerate in years ahead;
            (8) establish policies that capture and store carbon 
        currently in the atmosphere by protecting forests, improving 
        land and agricultural practices, including carbon farming, and 
        planting and greening urban landscapes;
            (9) support trade policies that maintain American labor and 
        environmental standards;
            (10) support tax incentives that promote the growth of 
        green jobs in the United States, including manufacturing jobs, 
        for the purpose of achieving full employment and protecting the 
        environment;
            (11) ensure universal access to clean energy for moderate- 
        and low-income families;
            (12) create policies or programs that result in net 
        positive environmental and economic benefits in impacted 
        communities, which shall receive at least 25 percent of 
        revenues committed to or generated by the implementation of 
        carbon reducing programs;
            (13) phase out subsidies for fossil fuels;
            (14) establish a national goal doubling efficiency of 
        existing buildings from 2015 levels by January 1, 2030; and
            (15) support a policy of the United States to work with the 
        United Nations and other international organizations and 
        nations to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 
        avoid catastrophic impacts from global climate change, and to 
        set a goal to achieve near zero greenhouse gas emissions by 
        January 1, 2050, by replacing fossil fuels with 100-percent 
        renewable energy along with conservation and energy efficiency.
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