by: Kellie Meyer
Posted:
/ Updated:
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — A Florida lawmaker who represents part of the Tampa Bay area is leading the charge on a climate action plan in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Our task is urgent,” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) said Tuesday.
Castor and other House Democrats unveiled a 500-plus page “action plan” to tackle climate change.
“We’re here on the steps of the United States Capitol to take a bold step for climate action now,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said.
Democrats said their plan would grow the economy by adding new clean energy jobs, help communities and farmers withstand the impacts of climate change by requiring best practices for building and farming and protect the health of families by developing a national plan to prepare and respond to disasters.
“Help states like mine, the State of Florida, become more resilient to flooding and intense hurricanes,” Castor said.
Castor called the plan a “roadmap” leading to 100% net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. But there are bound to be roadblocks to its passage from both sides of the aisle.
Our @ClimateCrisis plan puts people back to work & rebuild in a way that benefits all of us. That means environmental justice communities are at the center of the solutions we propose. The health of our families and the air we breathe are at the heart of our plan. #ActOnClimate pic.twitter.com/mrsdofweex
— US Rep Kathy Castor (@USRepKCastor) June 30, 2020
“I don’t think that Americans really believe that we can go to zero carbon emissions,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) said Tuesday.
Steube said the proposal is the Green New Deal all over again, a progressive plan pushed by Democrats last year that didn’t go anywhere.
A statement from Florida Senator Rick Scott’s office said, “Democrats prefer to play politics by proposing ridiculous ideas they know will never pass.”
Castor will also have to win the support of the progressive Democrats who backed the even more aggressive Green New Deal.
A spokesman for the climate committee says multiple ideas from those progressive members are included in the Democrats’ action plan.
