WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
11/2/12

IN CONGRESS

Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week called for the panel’s Republican leadership to organize a hearing on climate change in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that ravaged much of the Northeast earlier this week. “Hurricane Sandy is exactly the type of extreme weather event that climate scientists have said will become more frequent and more severe if we fail to reduce our carbon pollution,” Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Ranking Member Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) wrote to their respective counterparts Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) in a letter dated Oct. 31. “That is why we are writing to request that you hold a hearing on the storm and its relation to climate change in the lame duck session.” The pair said they have written Upton and Whitfield 17 times since March 2011 suggesting that the committee hold hearings examining climate change but that their requests have been ignored. “For two years, the House of Representatives has pretended that climate change is not happening and that the consequences can be dismissed without concern. With the election behind us, we will have an opportunity to begin again and give this matter the attention it deserves,” the two wrote.