Title: Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green Real Deal.
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
This resolution recognizes the duty of the federal government to create a Green Real Deal to achieve robust, economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 288 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 288

 Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green Real 
                                 Deal.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 3, 2019

    Mr. Gaetz (for himself and Mr. Rooney of Florida) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, Ways 
  and Means, the Judiciary, Transportation and Infrastructure, Armed 
  Services, and Oversight and Reform, 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


 
 Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green Real 
                                 Deal.

Whereas United States greenhouse gas emissions have decreased approximately 10 
        percent since 2005;
Whereas the United States leads the world in gross emissions reductions;
Whereas a clean energy economy is driven by a national commitment to innovation, 
        competitive markets, and the deployment of advanced energy technologies, 
        and the success of this approach is visible in the United States where--

    (1) energy productivity has grown 14 percent since 2009;

    (2) the total production of natural gas has increased by 56 percent 
since 2009; and

    (3) the installed wind and solar power capacity has quadrupled since 
2009;

Whereas energy prices in the United States are historically low, and energy 
        costs make up less than 5 percent of total United States personal 
        consumption expenses;
Whereas, in 2018, United States businesses set records by--

    (1) tripling corporate procurement of clean energy;

    (2) increasing liquified natural gas exports by 135 percent; and

    (3) increasing sales of electric vehicles by 80 percent;

Whereas the Department of Defense, on an ongoing basis and at the direction of 
        Congress, has identified risks to military assets, bases, and national 
        security from climate change, and has developed opportunities to reduce 
        greenhouse gas emissions and improve national security;
Whereas 13 Federal agencies, at the direction of Congress through the Global 
        Change Research Act of 1990, have found that--

    (1) climate change creates new risks and exacerbates existing 
vulnerabilities in communities across the United States, and that climate 
change threatens human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of 
economic growth;

    (2) communities, governments, and businesses are working to reduce 
risks from, and costs associated with, climate change, by taking action to 
lower greenhouse gas emissions and implement adaptation strategies; and

    (3) while climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts have 
expanded substantially in the last 4 years, such efforts do not yet 
approach the scale considered necessary to avoid substantial damages to the 
economy, environment, and human health over the coming decades; and

Whereas the House of Representatives recognizes unprecedented demand for job-
        creating, American-made, clean energy, and the need to empower 
        individuals and businesses to come together in the marketplace, as a 
        historic opportunity to--

    (1) create millions of good, high-wage jobs in the United States;

    (2) enable equal opportunity to achieve unprecedented levels of 
prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States; and

    (3) secure the position of the United States as a global environmental 
leader: Now, therefore, be it

    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) it is the duty of the Federal Government to create a 
        Green Real Deal--
                    (A) to achieve robust, economy-wide greenhouse gas 
                emissions reductions;
                    (B) to create more clean energy options through a 
                commitment to innovation;
                    (C) to position the United States as a global 
                leader in clean energy, driving global investment in 
                American-made clean energy technologies;
                    (D) to reduce and modernize regulations to speed 
                deployment of clean energy technologies nationwide and 
                worldwide, and to affirm that the Government should not 
                pick winners and losers;
                    (E) to empower individuals, States, and the 
                marketplace to invest in and implement clean energy 
                technologies; and
                    (F) to ensure that the infrastructure, communities, 
                and military of the United States are resilient and 
                adapting to long-term environmental, climate, and 
                social change; and
            (2) the goals described in subparagraphs (A) through (F) of 
        paragraph (1) (referred to in this resolution as the ``Green 
        Real Deal goals'') should be accomplished by--
                    (A) investing in carbon capture storage and carbon 
                capture and use, and otherwise reducing emissions or 
                achieving net-zero emissions from energy produced from 
                fossil fuels;
                    (B) investing in next-generation low- and zero-
                emission energy sources, including renewable energy and 
                nuclear energy, especially small modular reactors;
                    (C) promoting the widespread use and deployment of 
                next-generation recycling and waste management 
                technology, such as plastics-to-fuel initiatives, and 
                transforming postconsumer recycled plastic into new 
                materials such as asphalt;
                    (D) modernizing the electric grid through strategic 
                investments in transmission, distribution, and storage;
                    (E) allowing fair and equal access to energy 
                development on Federal lands;
                    (F) modernizing the implementation of the National 
                Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 
                seq.) to drive investment in clean energy 
                infrastructure, especially multistate transmission and 
                offshore wind;
                    (G) eliminating regulations that hinder or slow the 
                deployment of advanced energy, and creating a 
                regulatory climate to encourage the use of clean, 
                renewable, and innovative energy and recycling 
                technologies;
                    (H) modernizing regulations governing hydropower 
                development;
                    (I) establishing a voluntary framework for 
                reporting and tracking carbon emissions, renewable 
                energy procurement, and energy efficiency investment, 
                to increase investment in clean energy technology and 
                improve transparency and accountability for the benefit 
                of customers, investors, and shareholders;
                    (J) establishing robust homeowner tax incentives 
                for energy efficiency upgrades, including HVAC 
                upgrades;
                    (K) expanding tax incentives for commercial 
                building energy efficiency upgrades;
                    (L) establishing challenge grants for universities 
                to develop actionable plans for increasing resiliency 
                and building adaptive capacity to climate change in 
                urban and rural areas, as well as in national parks and 
                other Federal lands;
                    (M) working with utility companies and developers 
                to enhance consumers' ability to access clean and 
                renewable energy in their homes and businesses, 
                including solar, wind, and geothermal energy; and
                    (N) protecting the intellectual property of 
                American innovators.
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