With the U.S. Congress focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis announced it will postpone the planned release of climate change policy recommendations that had been set for late March.

House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Chair Kathy Castor, D-Fla., speaking at podium, is postponing the release of the panel's climate policy plan as Congress grapples with its coronavirus response.

Source: AP Photo

Although the select committee does not have the authority to mark up and vote on legislation, the energy sector has been awaiting the plan to further gauge how Congress might respond to climate change in the coming months and years.

"We've met with more than 1,000 stakeholders, reviewed more than 700 detailed responses to our request for information, and were planning to release our comprehensive climate policy recommendations at the end of March," Committee Chair U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor., D-Fla., said March 16. "However, as Congress focuses on the important mission of protecting Americans from the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided today to postpone the release of our climate action plan."

Committee spokesperson Melvin Felix said he could not provide further details on when the panel expects to release its plan or the policy recommendations.

The pending report is one of several climate-related initiatives that Democrats have undertaken since reclaiming control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. In late January, Democratic leaders of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released a draft bill to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050, including through a national clean energy standard for the electricity sector.

The draft bill is House Democrats' most comprehensive proposal on the issue so far this Congress. But the framework has drawn heat from progressive groups that want faster action to address climate change and from conservative lawmakers hesitant to commit to binding emissions-reduction targets.

Rather than back a tax on carbon emissions or set firm greenhouse gas limits, Republicans in Congress have advocated increased funding for clean energy research and development. But even those plans have hit setbacks, with a sweeping U.S. Senate bill to support clean energy technologies now bogged down in a fight to include language for lowering hydrofluorocarbon emissions.