Deploying sharply opinionated witnesses to scuttle any Democratic legislative agenda appears to be an increasingly common tactic Republicans have used in recent hearings, including on white nationalism and transgender rights. In this case, the hearing was in front of the environment subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee, which includes some of the most well-known Democratic freshmen of the 116th Congress, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep.
Rossiter was the last of the afternoon’s witnesses, and followed public health experts and medical doctors who described how global warming was not just an ecological disaster but approached epidemic levels in its human costs. Speaking in urgent, distressed tones, they described elevated levels of asthma and obesity, respiratory disease and food poisoning.
“So far, CO2 emissions have had a positive and modest impact on Americans’ health,” Rossiter said. He said “weather mortality” has fallen because most weather-related deaths come during cold spells, which presumably become more rare as the planet warms. Rep. James Comer, who is the committee’s ranking member and represents coal-rich western Kentucky, mused about “the role that coal would play in helping more Americans escape poverty and maintain a higher state of health and well-being.” There are, in fact, only 76,000 people across the United States working in coal extraction, in large part because the free market has made renewables a more attractive investment.