Rep. Waxman seeks lame-duck hearing on Sandy, climate change links

The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee is urging Republicans to hold a hearing in the lame-duck session on links between climate change and Hurricane Sandy.

Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) letter to the committee's chairman, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), makes Waxman the latest of several Democrats to cite the massive storm when calling for tougher action to battle global warming.

Wednesday’s letter argues that regardless of what happens at the ballot box in November, “the election should be a time to return to fact-based policymaking.”

“Hurricane Sandy is exactly the type of extreme weather event that climate scientists have said will become more frequent and more severe if we fail to reduce our carbon pollution. That is why we are writing to request that you hold a hearing on the storm and its relation to climate change in the lame-duck session,” Waxman and Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), a top lieutenant on the committee, wrote.

The letter is the latest in a series of requests from Waxman to hold a hearing on climate science, but Upton has not agreed. Upton’s office did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Waxman, when he chaired the Energy Committee, co-authored the big emissions-capping bill that narrowly passed the House in 2009, though it didn’t advance in the Senate.

Experts urge caution in singling out climate change as the culprit when major storms occur. But scientists say warming oceans and greater atmospheric moisture are adding to the intensity of storms while rising sea levels are making coastal impacts worse.

— This report was originally posted at 4:02 p.m. and last updated at 4:34 p.m.