Rep. Raul Grijalva: Indian Country planning for climate change

The vast majority of the scientific community hasn’t disagreed about climate change for decades. We know we’re pumping more carbon, methane and other dangerous gases into the atmosphere at record levels, and we know we’re trapping heat that will have serious impacts on our world for many years to come. Indian Country isn’t going to be spared. We should talk about what’s coming and plan ahead.

Tribal lands can be a big part of the response. Indian Country covers 2.4 billion acres nationwide and holds vast renewable energy potential – not just locally, but for the entire country. We should be aggressively incentivizing clean energy in every community big enough to hold a wind turbine or a solar collector. In March, the Internal Revenue Service ruled for the first time that a tribe that owns a renewable energy project can pass on federal tax credits to a lessee. This makes it easier for private entities to invest in Indian Country renewable energy efforts. We should make this ruling – currently limited to a particular case – a permanent part of the tax code.

We need to fund the excellent work of Tribal natural resource managers, many of whom have coped with starvation-level budgets for too long.