Climate change is a partisan issue in this country, and one Republican Utah Congressman is working with members across the aisle to address the global climate crisis.
Republican Utah Congressman John Curtis has openly called on members of his political party to acknowledge climate change.
He’s worked with Citizens’ Climate Lobby and cosponsored bills ranging from advanced battery recycling programs to legislation that would help farmers get paid to sequester carbon in soil.
He said to get more bipartisanship in Congress, lawmakers should start with things they agree on.
“Let's find the areas where we agree and work together,” Curtis said. “And then all of a sudden, the areas where we disagree become easier to tackle when we found and built trust between each other.”
He said to find practical solutions the country needs to move away from extremes to get more people on board to have a discussion.
“On the one side, there's plans that, of course, would destroy our economy and not impact the world’s carbon output, on the other side our kind of heads in the sand, pretend nothing's happening,” he said.
President-elect Joe Biden is planning a series of executive actions to address climate change.
And Curtis said while Biden can plan for executive action, the issue is that executive power is temporary.
“This is the problem, right? Is that who knows, but four or eight years that somebody comes along and does then? If we really want to make long lasting progress, we've got to do this congressionally,” he said.
He said no matter how successful the Congress is at creating legislation to deal with carbon emissions, the country still needs to prepare for the already changing climate.
KPCW News reports on climate change issues are brought to you by the Park City Climate Fund at the Park City Community Foundation, an initiative that engages Park City in implementing local high impact climate solutions that have potential to be effective in similar communities.
