Energy
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Not On The House Climate Crisis Committee, Says It Wasn’t A ‘Snub’
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Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Thursday she was not snubbed for a spot on the House Climate Crisis Committee and that she voluntarily turned down an offer to serve on it.
The New York representative rolled out her non-binding climate change resolution – the Green New Deal – outside the Capitol Thursday shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi named the lawmakers serving on the House’s new climate change investigatory committee. Ocasio-Cortez was not on the roster.
“Speak Pelosi and I have spoken at length about climate. We share this priority. She did, in fact, invite me to be on this committee, so I don’t think that this is a snub,” Ocasio-Cortez said when asked why she was not named to the committee.
Ocasio-Cortez turned down the chance to serve on the Climate Crisis Committee because of her other committee assignments and need to focus on the Green New Deal resolution.
“I’m on four subcommittees. We’re doing [the Green New Deal],” she said. “Additionally, the select committee is an investigatory body. … So they’re tackling the investigative piece and right now we’re tackling the legislative piece.”
Recent news reports suggest that Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution does not have the support of Pelosi, which could determine its success in the lower chamber of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey, who introduced the Senate version of the Green New Deal, disputed those reports during the press conference.
“There is no greater champion on climate change than Nancy Pelosi,” Markey said.
Pelosi seemingly downplayed the Green New Deal in an interview with Politico Wednesday. Pelosi has referred to climate change as her “flagship” issue.
“It will be one of several or maybe many suggestions that we receive,” Pelosi told Politico. “The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it, right?”
The Green New Deal is an outline of objectives to transition the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy in roughly 10 years. The resolution also calls for a variety of social justice and welfare investments, such as “repairing historic oppression” of certain groups.
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