SUPERIOR, Colo. (KDVR) — Three weeks after the Marshall Fire tore through Boulder County, lawmakers are calling for more action on climate change. They are not the only ones calling for more action.
Folks on the ground in Superior said they are tired of climate change being pushed to the back burner. They want someone to do something about it right now.
Dave Crawford lost his Superior home in the Marshall Fire. While he may not have all the answers for the climate crisis, he said leaders have to step up now.
“To think of all of the loss of life because of human inaction, anthropogenic causes, it’s infuriating, it’s tragic. We have to do something about it,” Crawford said. “Climate change should be the number one priority, maybe tied with omicron, but certainly the number one priority of political leaders across the world. … People are losing their homes.”
U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse joined the mayors of Boulder and Louisville to talk about plans to do that now. They believe the solution lies within a key piece of legislation.
“Coloradans are paying the price for climate inaction and the truth is Congress has the power to do something about it,” Neguse said.
“We can’t fix this on our own. We don’t have the resources at the local level to fix these problems, we need the help from the federal government,” said Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett. “And if Congress doesn’t go big on climate action now, our families in Boulder and across the country and the world will be trapped in an unending cycle of terrible climate disasters. What we really need next is the Build Back Better Act.”
While Neguse and his colleagues in the House passed President Biden’s plan that includes $555 billion in climate action investments, the bill ran into a roadblock in the Senate, just like the president’s voting rights and filibuster efforts. Despite the trouble, the congressman from Boulder is optimistic.
“My sense is that there is wide consensus that most of the climate provisions that were in the framework that the House passed and the Senate initially agreed to, or the majority of the Senate rather — there’s consensus that those provisions can survive. That includes the Climate Conservation Corps, that includes the forest funding and fire prevention, wildfire mitigation and resiliency funding,” Neguse said.
There are talks of lawmakers breaking out parts of the Build Back Better plan to get portions of it passed but it could still face an uphill battle getting enough senators on board.