The freshman Democrat is a driving force behind the Green New Deal but she didn’t make the cut.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced the Democratic members of the new Climate Change Committee, to be led by Tampa Rep. Kathy Castor.
Noticeably absent from the committee roster is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman progressive who has used her vast star power to pressure for a bolder strategy to address global warming. Ocasio-Cortez joined a sit-in protest in Pelosi’s office, demanding a climate change committee with legislative and subpoena power focused on the so-called Green New Deal, a plan to drastically curb carbon emissions by 2030.
Castor has vowed to mold the new committee in the spirit of the Green New Deal, she told the Tampa Bay Times last month.
“I’m not going to rest until we make true progress,” Castor said.
The Times asked Castor’s office if the Tampa Democrat had a say in who made the cut for her committee. We’ll update the story with her answer.
Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday released the legislative framework for the Green New Deal, which sets the goal of moving all United States energy production to renewable resources.
“Even the solutions that we have considered big and bold are nowhere near the scale of the actual problem that climate change presents to us,” Ocasio-Cortez told NPR.
Three of the Climate Change Committee members are from California and none represent the Northeast. They are: Reps. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Julia Brownley of California, Sean Casten of Illinois, Jared Huffman of California, Mike Levin of California, Donald McEachin of Virginia and Joe Neguse of Colorado.
Republicans have not yet said who they will appoint to the committee, nor whether they will seat climate change skeptics or members of the party who believe the scientific research.
Update: Here’s Castor’s full statement on the new committee members.