New Democrat Coalition Climate Change Task Force Statement on Passage of Legislation to Address Ocean Acidification
Washington, DC – Today, the New Democrat Coalition Climate Change Task Force expressed support for the House passage of H.R. 1921 – the Ocean Acidification Innovation Act (Rep. Kilmer), H.R. 1237 – the COAST Research Act (Rep. Bonamici), and H.R. 1716 – the Coastal Communities Ocean Acidification Act (Rep. Pingree). These pieces of legislation expand research and innovation to understand and address ocean acidification and coastal community vulnerabilities, which are driven in large part by climate change. The bills would reauthorize and improve the National Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Ocean Acidification Program to better understand ocean acidification impact, direct NOAA to conduct assessments of coastal community vulnerabilities due to ocean acidification, offer adaptation and mitigation strategies, and expand agency tools to promote innovation and new technologies to understand, prevent and adapt to ocean acidification.
New Democrat Coalition Climate Change Task Force Co-Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Sean Casten, Elaine Luria, and Susan Wild released the following statement:
"We are committed to fighting climate change and its effect on local communities, and this legislation to address ocean acidification represents a major step forward. Because oceans absorb so much of the planet's carbon dioxide, increases in emissions in recent decades have driven unsustainable increases in ocean acidity which threaten marine ecosystems and the very jobs and coastal communities and economies which depend on them. These bills would give the federal government better tools to prevent ocean acidification and its impacts, and we applaud their bipartisan passage in the House."