Insider NJ: Pascrell Calls for National Security Investigation of Carbon Pollution
Washington,
March 12, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Trade, sent a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross calling on him to initiate an investigation into the threat of carbon pollution. The letter was also signed by Reps. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34) and Judy Chu (D-CA-27), both members of the Ways and Means Committee. “We write to request,” the members state, “an investigation into imports of carbon emissions and the threat they pose to U.S. national security. Climate change is an existential emergency that poses grave threats to our security, public health, and economic prosperity.” The Pentagon has already concluded that climate change poses “immediate risks” to national security. Major peer-reviewed studies have predicted increasing losses to American infrastructure and property, impeding economic growth and GDP over the next century. These impacts are directly caused by carbon dioxide, mostly due to fossil fuels burned for energy. According to NOAA and the American Meteorological Society, global atmospheric carbon dioxide was 405 ppm in 2017, a new record high. Modes of trade and shipping, whether air, maritime, rail or auto transportation, cause carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
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