PD Editorial: Rep. Huffman gets a chance to lead on climate change

Rep. Jared Huffman long has been an environmental champion, and this year he's in a position to do more than ever to steer the nation toward a greener future. His constituents should have high hopes and high expectations for the Northern California congressman.

Being part of the majority party in the House of Representatives is new for Huffman. When he first headed to Washington in 2013, Democrats were in the minority. Last year, following a blue electoral wave, they retook the House majority.

For the first time, Huffman can pursue a more aggressive agenda on environmental issues important to his district, which stretches from San Francisco to the Oregon border along the coast and includes much of Sonoma County. He sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources and chairs its Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee.

That he landed on that committee is no surprise. Before election to Congress, he served three terms in the California Assembly where he was a leading voice on San Francisco Bay and Delta measures. And before that he was a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He also served as a director of the Marin Municipal Water District.

That experience no doubt contributed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi selecting Huffman for the new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.

If Americans needed more proof that elections matter, this committee provides it. There had been a climate change committee launched back in 2007, but Republicans disbanded it when they took over the House in 2011. Under the GOP, climate change was a nonissue in Congress even as the dangers and impacts became ever more evident.

The United States and the world must work to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. One House committee can't do it alone, especially while many Republicans - most notably the president - remain in denial about the science of climate change. Nevertheless, Huffman and his colleagues can bring much-needed attention to the issue.

They also can serve as an important review body for green legislation. For example, the Green New Deal that some Democrats are promoting is overly ambitious, but it includes some good ideas that could serve as a basis for better legislation with a chance of passing.

Huffman will be at the middle of those discussions, and we hope that he will bring special attention to the effects climate change already is having on Northern California. Drought and wildfires have caused incalculable economic and human damage here. Sea level rise and acidifying oceans also are threats.

He also can work with fellow Californian and select committee member Rep. Julia Brownley to highlight efforts that California is taking, in the absence of federal leadership, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for decades of climate change. From higher fuel efficiency standards to evolving water management strategies, the state is setting an example for the rest of the country.

Huffman calls climate change “the greatest moral, economic and environmental imperative of our time.” He's right, and now he has a chance to lead on combating this existential threat.

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