Fresh off taking control of the US House of Representatives in January,Democrats are starting to talk tough about the need for climate action.Hogging the headlines has been the long-awaited rollout of the”Green New Deal,”which looks to move the electricity grid away from natural gas-and end US reliance on oil and gas completely-in favor of 100% renewables over the next decade,and to slash transport emissions by investing in zero-emission cars,public transit and high-speed rail.With less fanfare,the House of Representatives hosted the first climate hearings in the lower chamber in nearly a decade,and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi named lawmakers to her newly revived Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.US climate policy has stagnated in the first two years of the Trump administration,with the planned US exit from the 2015 Paris Agreement the highest profile in a string of efforts to roll back federal climate targets.But after Democrats’midterm election victories in November broke a”logjam”in congressional climate proposals,”big,bold policy actions”are taking front and center stage,says R.L.Miller,founder of the advocacy group Climate Hawks Vote.
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