The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Postmaster General Louis DeJoy during a House Oversight hearing. Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez featured Taco Mix, objectively the best taco spot in Spanish Harlem, on her Instagram. I tell you this to a) convince you to go there if you are ever in the area, and b) because it speaks to the value of representatives who are normal people. AOC’s well-documented rise from bartender to congresswoman is indicative of how a healthy democracy should function. In an era where we need climate policy to rapidly scale up, having representatives in Congress who reflect people’s lived experiences is essential to ensuring those policies are just and favor constituents and not corporations. By almost every metric, Congress is completely out of step with the U.S. population. It skews older, more male, more white, and way more wealthy. More than half of all members of Congress are millionaires. While Republicans make up the majority of the top 10 wealthiest members in the House and Senate by a long shot, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ranks up there as the sixth-richest member of the House with an estimated net worth of $115 million. The disconnect contributes to why […]

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