Statement To the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce

In a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce on January 15, 2009, Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute (WRI), advocated for the urgent enactment of domestic U.S. climate legislation. Representing the United States Climate Action Partnership (US CAP), Lash argued that climate trends are accelerating faster than models predicted and that the U.S. must lead a transition to a low-carbon economy through a market-driven, economy-wide cap-and-trade program and complementary clean energy investments.

• Climate change trends are accelerating more rapidly than previous scientific models predicted, with current observations based on 0.8 degrees centigrade of warming. Even aggressive mitigation efforts may only barely prevent warming from reaching two degrees centigrade.
• Specific environmental indicators demonstrate rapid degradation: Arctic sea ice reached a record low of 4.13 million km2 from June through September 2007, and the thickness of winter sea ice plummeted after that minimum. In British Columbia, warmer temperatures have enabled a mountain pine beetle outbreak that impacted 13 million hectares by 2007, with projections that 78% of pine volume could be killed by 2015.
• The U.S. requires comprehensive legislation to transition to a low-carbon economy, which should include promoting energy efficiency in homes and buildings, modernizing the electric grid, stimulating low-carbon electricity, deploying carbon capture and storage for coal-fired plants, and improving transportation efficiency.
• US CAP recommends an economy-wide, market-driven approach centered on a cap-and-trade program with specified GHG emission limits. This should be supported by cost-containment measures, complementary policies, and a federally funded program for the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of climate-friendly technologies.
• The U.S. must act domestically and engage in international negotiations regardless of the actions of other countries, as the U.S. is the largest historical contributor to greenhouse gas concentrations and temperature increases.

APA

Lash, J. (2009). Statement To the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/publications/statement-us-house-representatives-committee-energy-and-commerce

Chicago

Lash, Jonathan. Statement To the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. World Resources Institute, 2009. https://www.wri.org/publications/statement-us-house-representatives-committee-energy-and-commerce.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Lash |first1=Jonathan |title=Statement To the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=15 January 2009 |url=https://www.wri.org/publications/statement-us-house-representatives-committee-energy-and-commerce |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{lash2009statement, author = {Lash, Jonathan}, title = {{Statement To the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2009}, month = jan, url = {https://www.wri.org/publications/statement-us-house-representatives-committee-energy-and-commerce}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }