Bill Text: TX HCR9 | 2021-2022 | 87th 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.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-03-11 - Referred to Environmental Regulation [HCR9 Detail]
Download: Texas-2021-HCR9-Introduced.html
87R572 SME-D | ||
By: Raymond | H.C.R. No. 9 |
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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 publication's coauthors 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 2019, the National Centers for Environmental Information | ||
recorded 14 weather and climate disaster events that each exceeded | ||
$1 billion in costs, marking the fifth consecutive year in which 10 | ||
or more billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events have | ||
impacted the United States; 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 former 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 87th 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. |