Climate Crisis

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEVIN of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Illinois, and I thank Chairwoman Castor for her exceptional leadership of our select committee.

My colleagues have done a good job so far of explaining why we need ambitious climate action that follows the science and meets the scale of the challenge we face. However, I would highlight one climate impact that is particularly important in the area I represent.

My district encompasses more than 50 miles of coastline in southern California, North County San Diego, South Orange County. Our coasts are a huge part of our communities. They drive our economies and are critical to our way of life. But sea level rise threatens all of this. It is accelerating the erosion of our coasts, which washes away beaches and threatens critical infrastructure, like the Los Angeles-San Diego- San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, also known as the LOSSAN Corridor.

The LOSSAN Corridor is the second busiest intercity passenger rail corridor in the United States and the busiest State-supported Amtrak route, with nearly 3 million inner-city passengers and 5 million commuter passengers each year. $1 billion in goods and services are also supported by the rail line.

At the same time, coastal erosion threatens the bluffs that run along our coasts in San Diego County. Bluff collapses have, tragically, taken the lives of eight people in our communities in recent years.

The impacts of climate change in coastal southern California are not theoretical. We see and experience them every single day. I strongly believe that we must take ambitious action to make our country more resilient to climate impacts while transitioning to a zero-carbon future, and we must do it now. We must do it now.

With President Biden's American Jobs Plan, we have a once-in-a- generation opportunity to do so. The American Jobs Plan, as proposed by the President, advances real climate solutions that will make a difference in the lives of our constituents. It will put us on the path to meeting the challenge presented by the climate crisis while creating 2.7 million new jobs, the jobs of tomorrow in clean energy, the jobs that will help us compete on the global stage. Those are the jobs we need.

The American Jobs Plan will create them, but in order to achieve these goals, in order to pass the American Jobs Plan as intended by the President, we must not abandon the key climate provisions and investments that the President proposed in his version of the plan. The package must deliver on the promise to put our country on the path to a 100 percent carbon-free energy powered electricity grid by 2035.

We can do this if we include strong tax policies that incentivize renewable energy generation. We can do this if we include clean energy and energy efficiency standards that promote renewable energy and reduce electricity use. We can do this if we include the policies and funding to electrify cars, buses, and buildings. And we must include the transportation sector. It is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

We need significant investment to incentivize the sale of zero- emission vehicles. Specifically, we must ensure that 100 percent of new light-duty vehicle sales are zero emissions by 2035, as envisioned under the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act that I introduced last Congress with Senator Jeff Merkley.

Moreover, the build-out of zero emission vehicle fueling and charging infrastructure must go hand in hand with the deployment of the vehicles themselves, which is why I strongly support the President's vision for 500,000 new charging stations across the country.

The American Jobs Plan provides us a pathway to finally achieve these goals and to lead the world when it comes to vehicle electrification. So without these key climate provisions, it is hard to imagine supporting any package that comes before this Chamber for consideration.

I am eager to help advance a strong American Jobs Plan that employs our communities, follows the climate science, and matches the scale of the challenge we face. I know my colleagues here feel the same.

Now is our opportunity to get this done. It is an opportunity that we must seize.

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