Pascrell Blisters Trump Administration Refusal to Tackle Climate Change

Commerce Department takes over a year to reject Pascrell calls for national security investigation into carbon pollution

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Trade, today reacted angrily to a letter he received from the U.S. Department of Commerce rejecting repeated calls for a national security investigation of carbon pollution – over one year after Pascrell led calls for decisive administration action against climate change.

“The Trump administration’s refusal to confront climate change is an outrage,” said Rep. Pascrell, a sponsor of the landmark Green New Deal. “The explosion of carbon pollution is absolutely a national security threat. Heck the Pentagon knows it’s a threat. Our scientists across the administration know. Trump needs to get his head out of the sand. That it took the Trump government over a year to reply to our urgent demand for action tells us, one more time, this government is itself a threat to the earth and an enemy of climate action. The future of the planet is at stake and Trump and his minions are content to pour gasoline on the fire.”

On March 12, 2019, Reps. Pascrell, Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34), and Judy  Chu (D-CA-27) sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross calling on him to initiate an investigation into the threat of carbon pollution pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Commerce to conduct investigations “to determine the effects on [US] national security” of imports of an article. This law allows any “interested party” to request Commerce initiate such an investigation to ascertain the effect of specific imports on the national security of the United States.

The members wrote Ross that “Clearly, carbon dioxide emissions are exacerbated by international trade and imports to the United States. This carbon pollution threatens agricultural markets and infrastructure, among other sectors of our economy, which Commerce should investigate with the urgency and gravity that this emergency warrants.”

The Pentagon has already concluded that climate change poses “immediate risks” to national security. Major peer-reviewed studies have predicted increasing losses to American infrastructure and property, impeding economic growth and GDP over the next century. These impacts are directly caused by carbon dioxide, mostly due to fossil fuels burned for energy. According to NOAA and the American Meteorological Society, global atmospheric carbon dioxide was 405 ppm in 2017, a new record high. Modes of trade and shipping, whether air, maritime, rail or auto transportation, cause carbon emissions that contribute to global warming

Rep. Pascrell believes climate change is an existential threat to the world and is dedicated to mustering government attention and resources to countering the effects of climate change. He is a cosponsor of H.Res. 109, the Green New Deal, which sets forth an ambitious framework for combating climate change. The Ways and Means Committee’s Trade Subcommittee, on which Pascrell serves, has oversight of our nation’s trade laws, including the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that governs Section 232 investigations.

A copy of Sec. Ross’s response to Rep. Pascrell’s March 2019 letter is available here.

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