[April 21, 2020 – Longport, New Jersey] –Brigid Callahan Harrison, Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s second congressional district announced today, Earth Day, her position regarding our global climate crisis:

I see first-hand the damaging impact ignoring our climate crisis has on our region. From the devastating effects of Superstorm Sandy to what have become the routine impacts of tidal flooding in shore communities, we are paying the price of failed leadership and the wrong priorities that have created an environmental crisis. Here in South Jersey, we are on the front lines as increased silt build-up clogging up the back bays interfering with commercial fishing and recreational activities, stormwater runoff and topsoil erosion damages our farming communities, and extreme temperatures effect our ecosystem and our economy. Environmental degradation in South Jersey primarily impacts our ocean, waterways, beaches, farmlands, pinelands, and weather, while throughout the United States wildfires, mudslides, droughts, glacial melting, tornadoes, and other forms of extreme weather are having a devastating effect.

The Green New Deal provides an important framework dealing with the climate crisis. In order to address this crisis immediately, we need a binding congressional plan that plants the United States firmly in the position as a world leader again in addressing the root causes of the climate crisis, focuses on environmental stewardship and conservation, protect our wildlife, forests and seashores, and ensures that everyone has access to clean air and clean water. Solving the climate crisis means recognizing the interconnectedness between our environment and our economy.

Among the first steps we must take are reentering the Paris Climate Agreement, and statutorily preventing future administrations from reneging on global commitments to solving the climate crisis, as has occurred with both the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. Secondly, we must permanently ban oil and gas drilling off our coast, which could have devasting impacts on wildlife, seashores, and tourism economy. We also must restore funding to the Environmental Protection Agency, so that they can renew their efforts to ensure that everyone has air and drinking water that is safe.

Research from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that the most catastrophic outcomes of climate change mandates that we cut carbon pollution to net-zero by 2050, and so I support binding legislation – not just a recommendation – that we do just that.
In Congress, I will tackle the climate crisis by sponsoring and supporting legislation in the following areas that will allow the United States to have a net-zero greenhouse gas environment by 2050:

• Empower and fund the EPA to oversee compliance by all federal agencies resulting in a net-zero greenhouse gas emission policy by 2050, and establish an enforcement mechanism that includes successive milestone targets starting in 2024.

• Reduce the largest source of greenhouse gas emission by requiring improved vehicle efficiency, rolling back Trump’s efforts to lower emission standards. I support creating gradually higher GHG emission standards for all classifications of vehicles (light, medium and heavy-duty). Starting in 2022, the year over year incremental improvements will result in net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, or sooner.

• Mandate 100 percent clean energy by 2050 by all requiring retail electricity suppliers provide an incrementally higher level of clean energy to consumers starting in 2022 by requiring retail electricity suppliers to buy and trade clean energy credits from one another or purchase them so that retailers have the requisite number of “clean energy credits” at the end of each year. This immediate yet incremental structure will enable the retail electricity sector to deliver the Unites States increasingly closer to 100 percent clean energy each year until the goal is achieved in 2050.

• Reduce the largest source of greenhouse gas emission by reducing emissions from construction materials and products used in projects that receive federal funding. Current carbon-intensive construction practices significantly contribute to GHG emissions. The federal government funds a majority of these construction projects throughout the nation, and requiring that construction projects switch to low-carbon materials creates a market for sustainable, green products which increases in employment opportunities in our green industrial sector.

• Conserve future energy consumption by enacting new building standards for new and existing buildings, putting the United States on the path to zero-energy capable buildings within a decade. Future energy can be conserved now by improving the efficiency of buildings, HVAC and other hard equipment and appliances.

• Sponsor congressional authorization to invest in quality, high paying jobs in clean energy and climate research and innovation that result both in an improvement in people’s lives and our environment, including wind energy off our coast that could provide jobs for South Jersey residents.

• Treat environmental degradation like the social justice issue that it is by ensuring that key clean energy innovations are integrated across the economy, especially in frontline communities that have seen the greatest negative effects of the environmental crisis.\

• Require states to comply with net-zero GHG policies by 2050 using the template of the Clean Air Act.  Mandate that each state provide the EPA with a plan to migrate to a net-zero economy by 2050 and address the remediation of heavily-impacted communities. We also should charge the EPA with creating model tactics for states to integrate into their plans, giving states the flexibility to develop plans to meet the 2050 standard, but requiring incremental compliance. States also must be required to include plans to mitigate hazardous air pollutants and remediate lead and other toxins contaminating the water supply in frontline communities.