States with poor climate policy ‘overlap’ with those seeking to limit rights, Kamala Harris says
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said that at least two of the states at the forefront of defending their right to keep their climate policies are “overlapping in terms of what they’re pushing” on climate issues.
Speaking at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Harris said that the new lawsuit the state of California brought against the Trump administration is “indicative of a trend on how states are trying to fight the Trump administration’s climate agenda.”
“California has been on the forefront,” Harris said. “They’ve filed a lawsuit against us. We want to be careful about what we say about them, but it does fit with this. And I think in terms of this administration, the actions they’re taking is actually over-reaching and going beyond the powers granted to them.”
The California suit, filed last week, seeks to protect California from having to comply with the Clean Power Plan, a controversial Obama-era executive order aimed at cutting carbon emissions across power sector sectors. The order, also known as the “Green New Deal,” is aimed at fighting global warming and includes provisions to cut emissions by almost 26 percent on federal lands and 33 percent on federal waters by 2030, using renewable energy sources.
The lawsuit states that the Clean Power Plan “alters the balance of power in California in a way that, in short, is not the intent or effect of the statute.” Harris says that the government’s actions in the case are “exceeding far beyond their powers.”
“It’s a very bad day for the Trump administration when California starts taking over our state,” Harris said. “And we should be very cautious about what we say about them because they are going further than what is granted to them in the law.”
Harris and other Democrats have expressed support for the Trump administration’s efforts to block the regulations on climate change policies.