A Legislative Committee on Wildfires Omitted Climate Change. Will New Flood Response Committees Follow Suit?
The TX House and Senate committees on disaster preparedness and flooding will meet for the first time next week
AUSTIN, Texas — New state legislative committees created in the aftermath of the July 4 floods that devastated the Texas Hill Country should not follow in the steps of a similar committee to address the historic Panhandle Wildfires by omitting climate change, Public Citizen said today.
This week, both chambers of the Texas Legislature appointed members to their respective newly created select committees on disaster preparedness and flooding. The committees will meet jointly for the first time on July 23 in Austin and on July 31 in Kerrville, with both hearings scheduled to take place at the start of a special legislative session expected to include flood response legislation.
“Texans are still coming to terms with the heartbreaking tragedy that struck families across the Hill Country. Sometimes it seems like Texas lurches from one natural disaster to the next. The climate crisis makes extreme weather more common, but will the state’s leadership acknowledge that fact?” said Adrian Shelley, Texas director of Public Citizen. “The Panhandle Wildfire select committee never discussed climate change’s role in the frequency and severity of wildfires. Will they make the same mistake with flooding in this special session? How many more times will Texas leadership be caught unaware by a natural disaster made worse by the climate crisis?”
The House select committee on the Panhandle Wildfires was created by then-Speaker Phelan and held a series of hearings near Amarillo, concluding its work with a report that included recommendations, some of which have now become law. Although the report noted the unusually hot, windy, and dry conditions at the start of the worst wildfires in Texas history, it made no mention of climate change. Similarly, the hearings did not discuss the topic during testimony, and no experts on climate science were invited to testify.