85R20032 BPG-D
By: Raymond H.C.R. No. 127
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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, United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in
his confirmation hearing, acknowledged the "complex issue" of
climate change; he stated: "I came to my personal position over
about 20 years as an engineer and a scientist, [and] understanding
the evolution of the science, came to the conclusion a few years ago
the risk of climate change does exist, and that the consequences
could be serious enough that action should be taken"; and
WHEREAS, In February 2017, the Climate Leadership Council
released a compelling report outlining the conservative case for
addressing climate change; the international research and advocacy
group's members 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, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Rita, and
Hurricane Katrina, which affected the entire Gulf Coast region; in
2016, the National Centers for Environmental Information recorded
15 weather and climate disaster events that each exceeded $1
billion in costs, the largest being the Louisiana flooding and
Hurricane Matthew, which both inflicted an estimated $10 billion in
damage; 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 current
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 85th 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.