Bill Text: TX HCR15 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging the United States Congress to conduct a cost-benefit analysis regarding the risks of climate change and appropriate measures to address them.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-02-25 - Referred to Environmental Regulation [HCR15 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HCR15-Introduced.html
| 86R615 KSM-D | ||
| By: Raymond | H.C.R. No. 15 | |
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| WHEREAS, Climate change is a complex issue with important | ||
| implications for economic stability, national security, and public | ||
| health for future generations of Texans; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In February 2017, the Climate Leadership Council | ||
| released a compelling report outlining the conservative case for | ||
| addressing climate change; the international research and advocacy | ||
| group's members include one of the Lone Star State's most respected | ||
| native sons, former U.S. secretary of state James Baker, as well as | ||
| members of the Ronald Reagan administration and both Bush | ||
| administrations, namely Martin Feldstein and N. Gregory Mankiw, | ||
| former chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, | ||
| Henry M. Paulson Jr., former secretary of the treasury, George | ||
| P. Shultz, former secretary of state, and Thomas Stephenson, former | ||
| ambassador to Portugal and now a partner at Sequoia Capital; the | ||
| organization's other members are Rob Walton, longtime chair of | ||
| Walmart, and Ted Halstead, founder, president, and CEO of the | ||
| Climate Leadership Council and founder of the New America think | ||
| tank; and | ||
| WHEREAS, The council's report states that evidence of climate | ||
| change is too powerful to ignore; although the extent of human | ||
| influence on climate is debated, the risks posed are such that the | ||
| world needs a kind of "insurance policy," the authors warn; climate | ||
| solutions based on sound economic analysis would build prosperity, | ||
| benefit working Americans, reduce regulations, and protect our | ||
| natural heritage; and | ||
| WHEREAS, In the Reagan era, economists conducted a | ||
| cost-benefit analysis to assess the risks of the growing hole in the | ||
| ozone layer, and the president then threw his weight behind a | ||
| landmark treaty, the Montreal Protocol, which implemented a | ||
| pragmatic, market-based solution to the environmental problem; | ||
| Mr. Baker, Mr. Shultz, and the other members of the Climate | ||
| Leadership Council support a similar conservative, | ||
| limited-government approach to climate change, and economists of | ||
| diverse viewpoints today concur that the economic benefits of | ||
| grappling with climate change greatly outweigh the costs; for | ||
| instance, while no single natural disaster can be attributed to | ||
| climate change, it has increased the risk of catastrophic events | ||
| such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricanes Ike, Rita, Katrina, and | ||
| Harvey; in 2017, the National Centers for Environmental Information | ||
| recorded 16 weather and climate disaster events that each exceeded | ||
| $1 billion in costs, with a cumulative cost of more than $300 | ||
| billion; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Many of the nation's leaders have spoken out about | ||
| the need to address climate change, including former vice president | ||
| Al Gore, who said, "Solutions to the climate crisis are within | ||
| reach, but in order to capture them we must take urgent action today | ||
| across every level of society"; former president Barack Obama | ||
| stated that "the shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen | ||
| overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the | ||
| debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children's | ||
| children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave | ||
| them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want | ||
| us to be able to say yes, we did"; another former president, Bill | ||
| Clinton, explained that "climate change is more remote than terror | ||
| but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the | ||
| grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you | ||
| have. . . . It's the only thing we face today that has the power to | ||
| remove the preconditions of civilized society"; and | ||
| WHEREAS, Climate change will negatively impact agriculture, | ||
| coastal cities, and political stability in already-volatile | ||
| regions of the world, and such developments could imperil our | ||
| American way of life; leaders in Washington, D.C., should | ||
| investigate how best to mitigate the dangers to ensure a stable, | ||
| prosperous future for the generations to come, for as the current | ||
| U.S. secretary of defense, General James Mattis, declared, | ||
| "Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where | ||
| our troops are operating today"; now, therefore, be it | ||
| RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas | ||
| hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to conduct a | ||
| cost-benefit analysis regarding the risks of climate change and | ||
| appropriate measures to address those risks; and, be it further | ||
| RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official | ||
| copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to | ||
| the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of | ||
| Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the | ||
| members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that | ||
| this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a | ||
| memorial to the Congress of the United States of America. | ||
