IV 
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 mod-
ernization, 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. SLAUGH-
TER, Ms. GABBARD, Mr. HUFFMAN, and Mr. COHEN) submitted the fol-
lowing 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 com-
mittee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the policies of the United States should support a transi-
tion 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 com-
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petitiveness and national security and for the purpose 
of avoiding adverse impacts of a changing climate. 
Whereas an immense number of scientific, economic, reli-
gious, 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 cata-
strophic 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 cli-
mate change; 
Whereas the Department of Defense and the National Intel-
ligence Council warn that climate destabilization threat-
ens United States national and global security by contrib-
uting to increased violent conflict and failed nation states 
suffering from water shortages, food scarcity, and pov-
erty; 
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 av-
erage 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); 
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Whereas 13 of the 14 warmest years on record have all hap-
pened 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 Assess-
ment 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 nu-
merous scientific and governmental organizations, includ-
ing the National Academy of Sciences, the World Mete-
orological Organization, the Department of Defense, the 
National Intelligence Council, the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, and the United Nations Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), support the findings 
that climate change is happening and that human activi-
ties 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 nat-
ural and human-made environments due to longer, more 
intense heat waves, prolonged droughts, rising sea levels, 
ocean acidification, and more intense and frequent ex-
treme weather events; 
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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 pres-
ently 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 re-
serves in the ground; 
Whereas public health experts have documented the health 
impacts of climate change, including the spread of infec-
tious diseases, risks to worldwide food and water sup-
plies, an increase in rates of asthma and other res-
piratory 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 dis-
ease now affects a larger share of Appalachian coal min-
ers than at any time since the early 1970s; according to 
the Department of Health and Human Services, black 
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lung disease has caused or contributed to more than 
75,000 coal miner deaths since 1968; and the Depart-
ment 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 exist-
ing inequalities; 
Whereas climate change has a disproportionate adverse im-
pact in the United States and throughout the world on 
minority communities and those with lower incomes, in-
cluding those in developing nations; 
Whereas extreme weather events linked to climate change ex-
acerbate our underlying economic inequities, and most of 
these events disproportionally harm middle- and low-in-
come 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 chil-
dren; 
Whereas many Native American communities have taken the 
lead in warning of the dangers of climate change, pos-
sessing unique knowledge and native wisdom drawn from 
a long history of living in sacred relationship with the 
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earth, which includes the need to live sustainably to en-
sure 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 Univer-
sity, and others point to the severe economic costs of cli-
mate 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 
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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 en-
ergy generation projects in a variety of industries, includ-
ing business, manufacturing, engineering, and construc-
tion; 
Whereas, in striving toward near zero emissions, we must 
also strive toward zero waste goals that will reduce car-
bon 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 emis-
sions 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 cre-
ates 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 fos-
sil 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 
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renewable energy by the year 2050 using current tech-
nologies; 
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’ Cli-
mate 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 tem-
perature to avoid climate catastrophe, and an unprece-
dented level of international cooperation is urgently re-
quired between now and 2030 to reduce the costs of cut-
ting global greenhouse gas emissions: Now, therefore, be 
it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives shall— 
(1) support the achievement of near zero green-
house 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 re-
sources, increase energy efficiency, and imple-
ment zero waste practices to end dependence on 
fossil fuels and to promote climate security, 
jobs for all, universal access to clean energy, 
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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 mod-
ernize the national infrastructure for the 21st cen-
tury, transition toward full employment with millions 
of new green jobs, and build a sustainable economy, 
focusing on historically unemployed or under-
employed communities; 
(4) provide educational and job training pro-
grams, transitional financial assistance, and job op-
portunities for coal miners and other fossil fuel in-
dustry workers displaced due to the transition to a 
renewable energy-based economy; 
(5) provide retraining and re-employment op-
portunities in green jobs for military veterans, in-
cluding those returning from military service in Iraq 
and Afghanistan; 
(6) provide increased funding for educational, 
training, and job assistance programs for rural resi-
dents and for increased emergency preparation and 
assistance to damaged rural communities due to the 
adverse impacts of climate change; 
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(7) help the people of the United States to es-
tablish resiliency to withstand the significant im-
pacts of climate change that are already occurring 
and that are expected to accelerate in years ahead; 
(8) establish policies that capture and store car-
bon currently in the atmosphere by protecting for-
ests, improving land and agricultural practices, in-
cluding carbon farming, and planting and greening 
urban landscapes; 
(9) support trade policies that maintain Amer-
ican 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; 
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(14) establish a national goal doubling effi-
ciency of existing buildings from 2015 levels by Jan-
uary 1, 2030; and 
(15) support a policy of the United States to 
work with the United Nations and other inter-
national organizations and nations to significantly 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions to avoid cata-
strophic impacts from global climate change, and to 
set a goal to achieve near zero greenhouse gas emis-
sions by January 1, 2050, by replacing fossil fuels 
with 100-percent renewable energy along with con-
servation and energy efficiency. 
Æ 
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