Congresswoman Doris Matsui has represented the city of Sacramento and its surrounding areas since 2005. As a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, she serves on the Health and Energy subcommittees and is the Vice Chair on the Communications and Technology subcommittee. She is committed to strengthening Sacramento’s flood protection, ensuring quality, affordable health care for all, promoting a clean energy economy, and creating a vibrant region where families can live, work, and play.
Enacting policies that assist in our ongoing efforts to reverse the effects of a changing climate, while protecting our communities, air, water, lands, oceans, and wildlife remains one of the Congresswoman’s top priorities. Throughout America’s history, we’ve often been presented with the challenge of protecting and preserving the environment and ensuring the safety and health of our communities while maintaining growth and responsible industrial progress. The Congresswoman believes that today, we can do both by supporting a just economic transition to a green new economy rooted in environmental and climate justice. For this reason she was a supporter of the Green New Deal and the Climate Action Now Act to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord.
In four years, the Trump Administration dismantled more than 100 environmental rules, including carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, cars, and trucks; critical provisions in the Endangered Species Act; and the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards, which protect communities from the toxic health effects of mercury exposure. The Congresswoman took matters into her own hands by introducing the Clean and Efficient Cars Act to fight against these rollbacks and preserve Obama-era fuel economy and vehicle emissions standards that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars.
In addition to this bill, during the 117th Congress the Congresswoman led several efforts urging the Biden Administration to restore these ambitious transportation standards and reinstate California’s ability to advance even stronger vehicle emission rules. Thanks in part to the Congresswoman’s efforts, in December of 2021 the Biden Administration unveiled new stringent tailpipe emission standards that incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles. The Administration has also announced that it is working to reinstate California’s authority to set its own vehicle emission standards and intends to unveil a new fuel economy rule to maximize transportation emission reductions.
Congresswoman Matsui has also spearheaded initiatives focused on clean transportation to reduce air pollution. She is a long-term champion of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, a law enacted in late 2020 to provide $100 million annually to upgrade millions of diesel truck engines to cleaner technologies while improving air quality and living conditions.
She is also a strong proponent for sensible conservation efforts that would protect our diverse environmental legacy, which is why she supported the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act, the largest conservation funding law in the last fifty years, and the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act. The Congresswoman is also a strong proponent of equitably sharing the benefits of green spaces and nature. Inspired by our district’s own “Sacramento Shade Program”, the Congresswoman introduced the TREES Act, a bill to reduce residential energy bills through tree planting. From our vast oceans to our precious national parks, all aspects of our environment must be considered. The Congresswoman believes we must not only protect these lands for native wildlife, but also to protect our natural, tribal, and cultural heritage and provide vital outdoor opportunities for all Americans.
The Congresswoman will continue working to uphold environmental regulations; ensure access to clean air, water, and green spaces for all communities; protect wildlife and nature; and improve the quality of our air and water for future generations.