| Select committee | |
|---|---|
Defunct United States House of Representatives | |
| History | |
| Formed | 2019 |
| Disbanded | January 3, 2023 |
| Leadership | |
| Chair | Kathy Castor (D) |
| Vice chair | Garret Graves (R) |
TheHouse Select Committee on the Climate Crisis was aselect committee established in the116th United States Congress in 2019 whenDemocrats regained a majority in theUnited States House of Representatives.[2] Its chair was CongresswomanKathy Castor of Florida.[3][4] The committee had no mandate or subpoena power to compel witnesses to testify.[5]
Its predecessor was theUnited States House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which existed from 2007 to 2011, and was not renewed whenRepublicans gained control of the House for the112th Congress.[6]
Nancy Pelosi, in her role asHouse Minority Leader, called for the Select Committee a week prior tothe 2018 House elections,[7] tellingTheNew York Times she wanted it to "prepare the way with evidence" for legislation tomitigate climate change.[8] In November and December 2018, youth climate activists with theSunrise Movement pushed House Democrats to form a select committee with the mandate to draft "Green New Deal" legislation, working with incoming freshman Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who proposed language for the committee's authorization.[9] The activists staged a series of sit-ins in the offices ofNancy Pelosi,Steny Hoyer, andJim McGovern, the incoming Speaker, Majority Leader, and Rules Committee chair. About two dozen Democratic members of Congress supported their proposal, but the incoming chairs of the Energy & Commerce and Natural Resources Committees, Reps.Frank Pallone andRaúl Grijalva, opposed it.[10][11]
The committee held its first field hearing on August 1, 2019, at theUniversity of Colorado Boulder. The witnesses started with Colorado governorJared Polis, followed by a panel that included the mayors ofBoulder andFort Collins, an expert in rural agricultural energy issues fromColorado State University, a representative of the oil and gas industry, and the director of the university's chief sustainability officer.
Following theNovember 2022 elections, the Republican Party obtained a majority in the House of Representatives.Garret Graves, the committee's ranking Republican, expressed an intent to end the committee.[12] On December 14, 2022, the committee released its final report.[13] The committee ceased to exist at the beginning of the118th Congress on January 3, 2023.
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