While I appreciate the renewed conversation around climate change that the Green New Deal and its supporters have sparked, I think we need to focus on real solutions that recognize the role fossil fuels will continue to play. That’s why I voted against the resolution today.  I have said it before: manmade climate change is real and it’s a serious threat to our citizens, to our economy, to our environment, to our national security and to our world. This climate problem is a massive one and we must act, but aspirational documents will not solve this crisis –real solutions focused on innovation will.  That’s why I’m concentrating on how our country can produce affordable, reliable, dependable energy 24/7 that will help us meet our emissions reductions goals.  And I’m working to make sure that we do it in a way that incentivizes nations like China and India to address the global climate crisis as well.   The truth is even if we zero out our country’s use of fossil fuels tomorrow, we must face the facts that other nations have invested in and will continue to use fossil fuels to develop their economies for decades to come. We cannot successfully address our climate challenge by eliminating sources of energy that countries are committed to using. Only through innovating and developing new technologies that reduce carbon emissions will we truly make a difference.   Whether it be successfully commercializing emissions-reducing technologies in the power, manufacturing, or transportation sectors, the U.S. must lead the world in innovation.  And we must do so in a way that creates meaningful opportunity for those communities here in the U.S. that have already been left behind instead of punishing them with burdensome mandates. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make sure we are working towards real world solutions that address the global climate, instead of playing political games with one of the greatest challenges we all are facing.