San Francisco, CA, April 10, 2015

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is trying to hide from his party’s record of failing to take action on climate change, which has exacerbated California’s drought. Apparently unaware of the immense irony, the second most powerful House Republican recently told The Hill, “The saddest thing [about the drought] is we warned this day would come, and now this day is here.” 

He’s right; Stanford scientists forewarned that human-caused climate change was “very likely” contributing to California’s drought. But Rep. McCarthy chose to ignore them and instead reward the polluters that have bankrolled his campaigns. Last Congress, House Republicans voted 236 times to block action on climate change. Now Rep. McCarthy is leading the charge to block a 30 percent reduction in carbon pollution from the power sector. He is also using the drought as an excuse to attack Endangered Species Act protections in California’s Bay-Delta ecosystem that safeguard native salmon plus thousands of farming and fishing jobs in the Bay-Delta and beyond.

Statement from Martin Hayden, Vice President of Policy and Legislation for Earthjustice: “Last fall, Stanford scientists concluded that it was ‘very likely’ that California’s longstanding drought was linked to human-caused climate change and now Rep. Kevin McCarthy is lecturing others about how ‘we warned this day would come. House Majority Leader, McCarthy has no one to blame but himself. On his watch, the House has done nothing to address climate change and is now actively trying to derail a plan that would slash carbon pollution from the power sector by 30 percent.”