WHEREAS the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a special report Climate Change the Physical Science Basis – Summary for Policy Makers in August, 2021, stating

“It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.”

“Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe and attribution to human influence, has strengthened since [the last report]”

WHEREAS the United States government released its Fourth National Climate Assessment Report in November 2018 reporting that the impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country, and that more frequent and extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities; and 

WHEREAS conservative estimates by the world’s climate scientists state that to achieve climate stabilization and avoid cataclysmic climate change, emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) must be reduced to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050; and 

WHEREAS technological innovation and commercialization over the past decade is dramatically reducing the cost of clean energy technologies relative to traditional fossil fuel energy to the extent that it is now economically feasible to undertake aggressive policy measures transforming our country’s energy sector; and, 

WHEREAS national polls such as Yale Climate Communications, Gallup, Pew Research, and conservative pollster Frank Luntz show a dramatic shift towards greater public concern about climate change and a support for taking comprehensive action to address it; and, 

WHEREAS good paying clean energy jobs now number more than 11 million and are dramatically increasing while the number of fossil industry jobs are one tenth as large and static, owing to highly automated and largely capital-intensive nature of the fossil fuel industry; and, 

WHEREAS the state of California, many cities, counties, businesses, and individuals are responding to the threat of climate change by implementing policies and taking voluntary actions to reduce their carbon footprints while little progress has been achieved in implementing a comprehensive federal climate policy; and, 

WHEREAS the Democratic Party now controls all three branches of the Federal Government, and the Biden administration has made climate change a top priority and is taking actions to combat it on multiple fronts, the Party is in a unique position to enact a politically sustainable solution meet the goal of 2050 carbon neutrality; and, 

WHEREAS the package of climate related legislative measures pending in the 117^th Congress includes the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 2307), which is explicitly designed to put the U.S. economy on a path for achieving 2050 carbon neutrality to help stabilize the climate while preserving a robust economy.  

We, The Assyrian Democrats of the Bay Area, hereby declare our support for the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (H.R. 2307) in the 117th Congress. The transition from fossil fuel to clean energy must be based on the foundations of a new National Green Electricity System that is viable, accessible and affordable to all.

The Executive Board

Assyrian Democrats of the Bay Area

A Chartered Democratic Club 

Affiliated with  Santa Clara County Democratic Party

November 4, 2021