Energy and Environment
Protecting the nation we inherited and will pass along to our children is a critical issue. Centuries of neglect and overuse has brought our environment to near collapse too many times. While decades of hard work and milestone legislation have restored much of our environment, there remains much to do. We have seen this in Detroit, where our river quality has improved drastically, but we know that there is still entirely too much to do to support environmental justice and quality.
In addition to the work on traditional pollution that poisons our rivers and chokes our air, we also face a truly global threat from climate change. It is incredibly important to recognize the patterns we have seen developing over the last century, and the consequences if we continue upon that path. It is time for our nation to invest heavily in green infrastructure—solar, wind, and other energy sources—that will support our lifestyle without destroying our children’s future.
In the shift to green technology, we confront what looks like a fourth industrial revolution, the previous three being the shift from agriculture to manufacturing, the creation of the everyday automobile and the consumer economy in the middle of the 20th Century, and the technological revolution of the late 20th Century and early 21st Century. As our economy revolutionizes once again, it’s important to ensure that we are just in how we allocate the benefits and the costs of this new horizon.
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Michigan – U.S. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) and Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today led a letter signed by every Democratic House member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, calling for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the State of Michigan’s actions to block the City of Flint from suing the State in connection with the Flint Water Crisis.
Washington, D.C. — Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13) today introduced the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act. This legislation would provide nearly $35 billion annually to modernize U.S. water infrastructure. The WATER Act funds infrastructure projects by closing a loophole on offshore corporate profits. The WATER Act would make these profits subject to U.S. tax in the year they are generated and ensure that all funds would go to publicly-owned water systems, rather than for-profit providers.
WASHINGTON – Today, Representative John Conyers, Jr. released the following statement in response to the charges filed against three government officials (two state officials and a city employee) in Michigan in connection with the Flint Water Crisis.
This summer, Pope Francis released one of the most important and eloquent works of our time: Laudato Si. A meditation on modern culture and our responsibilities to our creator and one another, it directly confronts the sin and injustice of continued environmental degradation and inaction on climate change.
When I voted for the Clean Air Act as a Member of Congress in 1970, I received a stern warning from special interests: Environmental protection hurts economic growth. When I voted for the Clean Water Act in 1972, the Endangered Species Act in 1973, and the first federal fuel economy standards in 1975, the usual suspects were out in force with a familiar message: green regulations are just too costly.
WASHINGTON – Today, Representatives John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) reintroduced the Saving America’s Pollinators Act of 2015, which requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to suspend the use of certain insecticides, known as neonicotinoids, until the agency can review the registration and declare that such insecticides do not cause adverse effects upon honey bees and other pollinators.