House Democrats to launch three climate task forces

The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition today will formally launch three task forces focused on tackling key aspects of the climate crisis, The Climate 202 scoops this morning.

The move by the coalition, a group of more than 70 climate-conscious House Democrats, comes as President Biden's Build Back Better proposal remains stalled in the Senate.

While leadership ultimately controls the party's agenda, the move signals that rank-and-file members are looking for creative ways to advance climate legislation, regardlessof the fate of Build Back Better and its $555 billion in climate spending.

Each task force will seek to ensure that must-pass legislation, including annual policy and appropriations bills, contains robust climate provisions:

• Coalition Vice Chair Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine) and Rep. Kim Schrier (Wash.) will co-chair the Climate and Agriculture Task Force, which will aim to ensure that the next farm bill empowers farmers to address the climate crisis.
• Reps.James R. Langevin (R.I.) and Katie Porter (Calif.) will co-chair the Climate and National Security Task Force, which will propose climate-related amendments to the annual defense policy bill as well as the defense appropriations bill.
• Reps. Sean Casten and Raja Krishnamoorthi, both of Illinois, will co-chair the Power Sector Task Force, which will draft legislation aimed at achieving President Biden's ambitious clean energy goals, building on the provisions in the bipartisan infrastructure law.

"In terms of how we move climate legislation, we can leverage annual must-pass bills like the NDAA," Langevin told The Climate 202, referring to the National Defense Authorization Act.

"We can use the vehicles at our disposal," he added. "But I remain dedicated to getting the climate provisions of the Build Back Better Act over the finish line."

Climate change is already threatening U.S. national security by fueling extreme weather, global instability, violence and migration. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is a massive emitter of greenhouse gases, sending more carbon into the atmosphere than entire countries.

Langevin has previously sponsored several climate-related amendments to the NDAA, including amendments requiring the Pentagon to update its climate adaptation road map and to report on heat illnesses in the military.

Climate-friendly agriculture

Pingree, a longtime organic farmer who will co-chair the agriculture task force, told The Climate 202 that agriculture often gets overlooked in climate policy discussions, despite its crucial role in curbing planet-warming emissions.

"There's a tendency to think about it very simplistically and say it's all about energy sector or it's all about the transportation sector," Pingree said. "People don't generally have a good understanding of the role that agriculture can play. So this is a great opportunity."

• Agricultural activities contributed to about 10 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
• Pingree has introduced legislation that would empower farmers to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
• The Build Back Better Act also would invest billions of dollars in encouraging farmers and ranchers to plant trees and sequester carbon in soil.

Pingree said that while the task forces were not formed in response to Build Back Better, she has been "frustrated" to see the bill stall in the Senate amid opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.).

"I'm extremely frustrated that we haven't been able to move on Build Back Better, particularly because many of the agriculture and climate-related practices are not the controversial sections," she said. "They're places where there's broad agreement."

In addition to Build Back Better, the agriculture task force will make recommendations to the Agriculture Committee ​​​​​​regarding the farm bill​ in 2023 while seeking to involve farmers in those discussions.

"Farmers could really be our magic solution to a lot of the climate crisis," Schrier, the co-chair of the agriculture task force, told The Climate 202.

Power sector struggles

Casten, a former clean energy executive who is co-chairing the power sector task force, told The Climate 202 that it will have members from every committee of jurisdiction and will work in concert with the White House to meet Biden's clean energy goals.

• In 2019, the electricity sector accounted for about 25 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
• Biden has set an ambitious target of making the U.S. grid run on 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.
• However, Democrats dropped the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would have rewarded utilities for transitioning to cleaner energy, from Build Back Better because of opposition from Manchin.

Notably, Casten said he would be open to crafting something similar to the program, although he acknowledged the difficulty of moving such legislation through the narrowly divided Senate.

"I would love to see us do something like that," he said. "But let's do it in a holistic way where we look at the realities of the electric grid and harmonize with existing state policies."