Democrats form special ‘Climate Crisis’ House Committee

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has announced the creation of a new special committee to examine climate change when her party takes back control of the US House of Representatives next month.

Florida Democratic Representative Kathy Castor will lead the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis as chairwoman, Ms Pelosi said.

“It is with great enthusiasm that I appoint Congresswoman Kathy Castor as the Chair of our new Select Committee on the Climate Crisis,” Ms Pelosi said. “She will bring great experience, energy and urgency to the existential threat of the climate crisis. This committee will be critical to the entire Congress’s mission to respond to the urgency of this threat, while creating the good-paying, green jobs of the future.”

Ms Castor, a seven-term representative for Tampa Bay, has been a long time sitting member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. The Florida Democrat has already promised, as chairwoman, to decline all campaign contributions from coal, oil or gas companies.

“Congresswoman Castor is a proven champion for public health and green infrastructure, who deeply understands the scope and seriousness of this threat,” Ms Pelosi added. “Her decades of experience in this fight, both in Florida and in the Congress, where she has been an outstanding leader on the Energy and Commerce Committee and on the House Democratic Environmental Message Team, will be vital.”

Ms Pelosi has not yet specified what the committee will do in the upcoming Congress, but typically, House committees of this nature can hold hearings, write reports and bring awareness to political issues.

Several progressives and climate change activists have criticised House leadership’s proposals for the panel. For instance, the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will not be tasked specifically for establishing a Green New Deal, which calls for transition to a 100 per cent renewable electricity, and it will not have subpoena power.

“My position is that the committee should have legislative authority and should have subpoena power,” Ms Castor said. “But I think that has been negotiated with the standing committee chairs, and we’re going to work together.”

Progressives, including New York Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have also demanded that congressional representatives who received money from fossil fuel companies be banned from sitting on the panel. However, the new panel won’t bar such lawmakers.

Ms Castor told the Hill in December that progressive can trust her with their climate change concerns, specifically the "Green New Deal" stimulus package that progressive members of the party have pushed for.

“There’s some fabulous proposals in the Green New Deal, and I’m excited about all that. You may see some similar language. Clearly, the focuses are going to be the same,” Ms Castor said. “This will be a committee clearly in the spirit of the Green New Deal.”

The incoming chairwoman also said pledgd to not take campaign donations from the fossil fuel industry, and will require her colleagues in the committee to do the same as a rule.

“I’m hoping that folks will come to this committee ready to take on the corporate polluters and special interests,” she added. “There shouldn’t be a purity test, that if a member of Congress has ever accepted contributions.”