Climate Change

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the impending impacts of climate change on our planet and the unquestionable impact that all of us are aware of.

Over the world, we see prolonged droughts fueling disastrous fires. Over the last 6 months we have watched horrific bushfires in Australia with tremendous losses. People have died, half a billion animals have been lost, and millions of acres of land have been swallowed up by flames.

As a lifelong resident of California, I have witnessed similar devastation in our own communities as a result of climate change. The past 2 years alone were the two worst fire seasons on record. Climate change has, no doubt, heightened the impact of these fires which is why we are witnessing these horrific impacts, and they are so difficult to manage.

Climate change is happening now and we must do more. For starters, we must continue to make significant efforts to reduce our carbon footprint. We must continue to invest in clean air and affordable transportation made more readily available to all of our communities throughout the country.

Last year, the House took strong steps to protect our planet in the future by passing H.R. 9, the Climate Action Now Act. H.R. 9 confronts the climate crisis by keeping us in the Paris Agreement, and demanding a plan of action from the administration to participate in a meaningful fashion. But that bill, along with hundreds of others, are currently sitting on Senator McConnell's desk collecting dust, sadly.

These current events have made it clear that we have an imperative need to act on this climate crisis. And while we wait for the Senate to act, I am doing all that I can to make a difference in California as it relates to our air quality, transportation, and our water needs that are impacted.

As a member of the State legislature, years ago, I created the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to help monitor and reduce pollution in the valley and improve our air quality, and we have made progress.

I am also the cosponsor and helped to introduce the Clean Corridors Act and the Clean School Bus Act that also reduced greenhouse gases.

We have also helped kick-start California's High-Speed Rail project which will get millions of drivers out of their cars and into cleaner, more accessible transportation, along with our inner-city transportation, our intermodal concept to use all of the modes of transportation more effectively for cleaner air quality.

I am also working on water legislation that will help improve conservation and work toward a sustainable water supply for our farmers and cleaner water for our communities throughout California.

California's broken water system is not suited to deal with the increased volatility caused by climate change.

For those of you who are unaware, California gets most of its water, its moisture, between November and March. The rains are important. They are critical, and the snow in the mountains are Mother Nature's icebox.

With climate change, we see the droughts have become longer and more intense, and the storms that we rely on for the snowpack are fewer and are at a higher elevation, which means this incredible water system that we have created over the last 100 years has to adapt to those changes.

Food is a national security issue, not only in California, but in America and throughout the world. Without a reliable supply of water, we cannot grow food, not only for our Nation but for the planet, and so this is a critical issue.

We need to understand that for 7 billion people on the planet in the last 2 years--suggested to increase to 9 billion by the middle of this century--the ability to provide a sustainable water supply for the entire world and for us to grow food to feed our people in this country is absolutely critical.

Therefore, we have a moral responsibility to be good stewards of this planet that we call home for ourselves and for the future generations to come.

As we begin the new year, let's work together now to find bipartisan, commonsense solutions to help us pass along a better planet for future generations to come. This, among all of the other difficult issues we face, I believe, is the primary challenge of the 21st century.

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