87R572 SME-D
 
  By: Raymond H.C.R. No. 9
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, Climate change is a complex issue with important
  implications for economic stability, national security, and public
  health for future generations of Texans; and
         WHEREAS, In February 2017, the Climate Leadership Council
  released a compelling report outlining the conservative case for
  addressing climate change; the publication's coauthors include one
  of the Lone Star State's most respected native sons, former
  U.S. secretary of state James Baker, as well as members of the
  Ronald Reagan administration and both Bush administrations, namely
  Martin Feldstein and N. Gregory Mankiw, former chairs of the
  President's Council of Economic Advisers, Henry M. Paulson Jr.,
  former secretary of the treasury, George P. Shultz, former
  secretary of state, and Thomas Stephenson, former ambassador to
  Portugal and now a partner at Sequoia Capital; the organization's
  other members are Rob Walton, longtime chair of Walmart, and Ted
  Halstead, founder, president, and CEO of the Climate Leadership
  Council and founder of the New America think tank; and
         WHEREAS, The council's report states that evidence of climate
  change is too powerful to ignore; although the extent of human
  influence on climate is debated, the risks posed are such that the
  world needs a kind of "insurance policy," the authors warn; climate
  solutions based on sound economic analysis would build prosperity,
  benefit working Americans, reduce regulations, and protect our
  natural heritage; and
         WHEREAS, In the Reagan era, economists conducted a
  cost-benefit analysis to assess the risks of the growing hole in the
  ozone layer, and the president then threw his weight behind a
  landmark treaty, the Montreal Protocol, which implemented a
  pragmatic, market-based solution to the environmental problem;
  Mr. Baker, Mr. Shultz, and the other members of the Climate
  Leadership Council support a similar conservative,
  limited-government approach to climate change, and economists of
  diverse viewpoints today concur that the economic benefits of
  grappling with climate change greatly outweigh the costs; for
  instance, while no single natural disaster can be attributed to
  climate change, it has increased the risk of catastrophic events
  such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricanes Ike, Rita, Katrina, and
  Harvey; in 2019, the National Centers for Environmental Information
  recorded 14 weather and climate disaster events that each exceeded
  $1 billion in costs, marking the fifth consecutive year in which 10
  or more billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events have
  impacted the United States; and
         WHEREAS, Many of the nation's leaders have spoken out about
  the need to address climate change, including former vice president
  Al Gore, who said, "Solutions to the climate crisis are within
  reach, but in order to capture them we must take urgent action today
  across every level of society"; former president Barack Obama
  stated that "the shift to a cleaner energy economy won't happen
  overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the
  debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children's
  children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave
  them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want
  us to be able to say yes, we did"; another former president, Bill
  Clinton, explained that "climate change is more remote than terror
  but a more profound threat to the future of the children and the
  grandchildren and the great-grandchildren I hope all of you
  have. . . . It's the only thing we face today that has the power to
  remove the preconditions of civilized society"; and
         WHEREAS, Climate change will negatively impact agriculture,
  coastal cities, and political stability in already volatile regions
  of the world, and such developments could imperil our American way
  of life; leaders in Washington, D.C., should investigate how best
  to mitigate the dangers to ensure a stable, prosperous future for
  the generations to come, for as the former U.S. secretary of
  defense, General James Mattis, declared, "Climate change is
  impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are
  operating today"; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 87th Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby respectfully urge the United States Congress to conduct a
  cost-benefit analysis regarding the risks of climate change and
  appropriate measures to address those risks; and, be it further
         RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
  copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
  the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of
  Representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
  members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
  this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
  memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.