a battle is brewing over environmental

policy in the face of multiple

scientific studies concluding climate

change is a growing threat the Trump

administration is expanding the use of

fossil fuels while the state works to

cap them next month in New Jersey

Congress member will assume the power

seat over environmental policy in

Washington Lane Michigan reports on the

peril and promised the challenge of

climate change if we can show what's

happening then maybe we can reverse it

last month the fourth National Climate

Assessment was released and one of the

co-authors Tony McDonald says the

science seems to be clear that there are

significant issues that could impact our

area according to the assessment about

half of the commercial fish species will

be highly vulnerable by 2050 if the

oceans get warmer and there seems to be

clear indications that that's going to

happen you might have fish fish sort of

migrating further north so the areas are

where they live so that will impact our

fishermen so we really think that there

do seem to be definite signs that the

impacts of climate change particularly

in warming of the Seas

warming of the air and the overall

temperature and that McDonald says may

have an impact on the state's tourism

industry as well as the impacts on

coastal storms that are going to be

predicted to come more frequently and

more intensely with more rain Stockton

University coastal Research Center's Kim

McKenna says her organization works with

communities that are seeing impacts of

sea level rise this is real information

and you know this is what's happening

let's get together and plan together of

what we can do representative Frank

pallone hopes one of the first orders of

business in Congress will be a federal

infrastructure bill he says that can be

the bipartisan vehicle for addressing a

lot of the issues that may arise due to

climate change for example energy

efficiency upgrading the electricity

grid trying to encourage and incentivize

electric vehicles things that could be

done under the infrastructure umbrella

that would help reduce greenhouse gases

pallone is on track to become chairman

of the Energy and Commerce Committee in

the new Congress and he says they're

going to have hearings right from the

start and one of the things we wanted

do is to find out to what extent and how

the Trump administration has been

tearing down a lot of the initiatives

that would help us with reducing

greenhouse gases he pointed to the

recent Paris climate deal reached in

Poland this weekend as a sign of hope

close to 200 countries including the

United States agreed to keep the same

standards on how to measure emissions

until more talks in 2020 at Monmouth

University

laya Michigan NJTV news

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