Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Illinois, and I thank Chairwoman Castor for her exceptional leadership of our select committee. My colleagues have done a good job so far of explaining why we need ambitious climate action that follows the science and meets the scale of the challenge we face. However, I would highlight one climate impact that is particularly important in the area I represent. My district encompasses more than 50 miles of coastline in southern California, North County San Diego, South Orange County. Our coasts are a huge part of our communities. They drive our economies and are critical to our way of life. But sea level rise threatens all of this. It is accelerating the erosion of our coasts, which washes away beaches and threatens critical infrastructure, like the Los Angeles-San Diego- San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, also known as the LOSSAN Corridor. The LOSSAN Corridor is the second busiest intercity passenger rail corridor in the United States and the busiest State-supported Amtrak route, with nearly 3 million inner-city passengers and 5 million commuter passengers each year. $1 billion in goods and services are also supported by the rail line. At the same time, coastal erosion threatens the bluffs that run along our coasts in San Diego County. Bluff collapses have, tragically, taken the lives of eight people in our communities in recent years. The impacts of climate change in coastal southern California are not theoretical.…”