House Speaker Nancy Pelosi excluded Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democratic freshman who has made curbing climate change her number-one cause, from a special climate committee whose members were announced Thursday.

Pelosi said that Ocasio-Cortez declined a spot on the panel.

Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the appointments on the day Ocasio-Cortez unveiled her “Green New Deal” initiative aimed at ending the use of fossil fuels in America in the coming decades. The "Green New Deal" would transform the U.S. economy through a massive mobilization of resources by the government in order not just to reduce carbon emissions but also to alleviate income and wealth inequality.

Pelosi named Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., to chair the panel as well as eight other Democrats.

“This new Select Committee will spearhead Democrats’ work to develop innovative, effective solutions to prevent and reverse the climate crisis,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It will generate the energy and action required to permanently reduce pollution so that we can honor our responsibility to be good stewards of the planet for future generations.”

Ocasio-Cortez had called for the creation of a special panel to develop comprehensive legislation to address climate change. The panel, though, does not include the legislative and other powers that Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives sought.

Earlier this year, Pelosi appointed Ocasio-Cortez to the Financial Services and Government Reform and Oversight Committees. When Ocasio-Cortez arrived in D.C. after winning the November election, she took the unusual step of joining climate activists demonstrating in Pelosi's congressional office.