WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis’s new report underscores the progress it has championed and achieved — as well as the immense work ahead for the Biden Administration and the next session of Congress. The report also highlights the work of Chair Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and her 15 colleagues on the panel, including its numerous hearings on issues ranging from reducing industrial emissions and pollution to funding clean energy generation and expanding the grid to advancing environmental justice to increasing climate adaptation and resilience.

“The Select Committee on the Climate Crisis has played a pivotal role in advancing not only public discussions about the changing climate, but also solutions that create jobs and opportunity, address historic environmental injustices, and prioritize innovation. This report underscores the committee and Chair Castor’s leadership,” said Shannon Heyck-Williams, associate vice president for climate and energy. “Congress and the Biden Administration have taken immense strides toward our clean energy future over the past two years, and now need to build upon the successes of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.”

The Select Committee on the Climate Crisis’s achievements  including provisions in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act that provide tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicle technologies, establish the first-ever Methane Emissions Reduction Program, ensure frontline communities and hard-working people are not left behind, and invest in natural climate solutions that reduce atmospheric carbon and make communities more resilient to climate-fueled disasters.

The report highlights a series of areas ripe for additional exploration and action in the next Congress, including:

1. Increasing workforce development and training through a 21st century Civilian Climate Corps and other programs;
2. Implementing nature-based solutions on public and private lands that strengthen community resilience and conserve and restore wildlife habitat;
3. Establishing comprehensive and responsible strategies on both transmission and critical minerals;
4. Advancing building standards that protect people from climate-fueled fires, floods, hurricanes, and other unnatural disasters; and,
5. Strengthening community engagement around permitting to ensure that advances in clean energy do not create or perpetuate the persistent environmental injustices facing frontline and fenceline communities.