SEEC Championed Climate Leadership at New York Climate Week 2025
Washington, D.C. – This week, members of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Paul Tonko (NY-20) and Doris Matsui (CA-07) and Vice Chairs Reps. Sean Casten (IL-06), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), as well as Members Reps. Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Kathy Castor (FL-14), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Dave Min (CA-47), and Melanie Stansbury (NM-01), participated in numerous New York Climate Week 2025 events to demonstrate continued leadership on climate action at the federal level. SEEC members discussed an array of topics at Climate Week from highlighting the fight to create good-paying climate jobs, as well as building resilient and affordable housing in America, to unveiling federal legislation that will ensure Americans have access to cheap, reliable, and clean energy.
SEEC Co-Chair Rep. Doris Matsui (CA-07), Co-Chair Rep. Paul Tonko (NY-20), Vice Chair Rep. Sean Casten (IL-06), Vice Chair Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Reps. Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Kathy Castor (FL-14), Maxine Dexter (OR-03), Jim Himes (CT-04), Jennifer McClellan (VA-04), Dave Min (CA-47), and Melanie Stansbury (NM-01) attended a SEEC Institute Climate Week Reception with more than 200 leaders from business, philanthropy, advocacy, and the diplomatic community. They were joined by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (CA-11) who spoke to what’s possible when we come together to drive bold climate and clean energy solutions.
SEEC Climate Jobs Task Force Co-Chair Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) joined a panel at the Climate Jobs National Resource Center Climate Week 2025 event to discuss the status of the labor movement in building America’s clean energy economy.
“I was one of the team members of the Climate Jobs National Resource Center before I ran for Congress. And so when I ended up going to Congress, I joined the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) in the House,” said Congresswoman Budzinski. “With SEEC, we started a Task Force that is specifically focused on job creation. We worked with the Climate Jobs National Resource Center, specifically around some of the data points on job creation, to make the case around the Inflation Reduction Act’s job creation and clean energy economy opportunities. We're working to obviously shift gears now in Washington to reflect more of the attacks that we're facing, but we are going to be keeping that Task Force alive to continue to beat the drum.”
SEEC Vice Chair and Clean Energy Deployment Task Force Co-Chair Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) joined a live episode recording of Heatmap’s Shift Key podcast, hosted by Robinson Meyer, to unveil the Cheap Energy Agenda, a consumer-focused approach to United States energy policy.
“We call this the Cheap Energy Act because cheap energy is synonymous with clean energy. American energy policy at best has been incoherent on whether we should prioritize the interests of producers or consumers,” said Congressman Casten. “More often than not, it prioritizes producers. And so what we've tried to do in this bill is to say we have to deploy things vastly faster than we've been deploying them before. We have to deploy things that are reliable, that are cheap. We can either take an approach to build those that says we are going to castigate all of the actors in the industry who are not deploying fast enough and say, I am going to compel you to do things that are opposed to your economic interests. Or we could change their economic interests.”
SEEC Member Congresswoman Kathy Castor (FL-14) joined a panel at the “Building Local to Global Climate Coalitions Powered by Communities” event to discuss efforts to unite community voices, policymakers, and academia to drive meaningful climate action at the federal level.
“I am one member of Congress, but one of a mighty group called the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition,” said Congresswoman Castor. “We have just embarked on the next chapter to determine the climate and equity solutions that will help solve the climate crisis and help us avoid the worst impacts of climate change and pollution. But doing it by empowering everyone and lifting everyone up, finding the opportunities we have to work together. We want to be ready with the solutions.”
SEEC Member Congresswoman Maxine Dexter (OR-03) spoke at a ‘Climate Action: A Food Waste Breakthrough’ event to share her perspective on the next steps to building durable climate policy in Congress.
“We have 100 members in the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC). It’s a caucus for environmental and energy policy. We have a Thriving Economy initiative that we really need to lean into,” said Congresswoman Dexter. “There are many thought leaders and investigators and policymakers here. We need your help to try to build policies for the next iteration, hopefully a bipartisan one that is founded in science and reality. We have a lot of interest in building things from the bottom up, because honestly, the most important policies are going to address the issues that people are facing every day, and we need to dig into that part right away.”
SEEC Building Resilient Housing Task Force Co-Chair Congressman Dave Min (CA-47) joined a “Designing Resilience: Shaping Communities through Policy and the Built Environment” event to discuss federal policies geared towards affordable, resilient housing for America.
“From a policy perspective, we need to rethink how we’re going to build and plan around housing, how we encourage new homes to be built, either with protections against natural disasters or being built outside of the areas most vulnerable to natural disasters. We also need to be thinking about what we can do to limit the new carbon emissions coming out of homes that we’re building,” said Congressman Min. “It’s one of the reasons that Johnny Olszewski from Maryland and I established the Building Resilient Housing Task Force in Congress, which is one of the Task Forces under SEEC, the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. We want to bring together people like you in the room, our communities and stakeholders, policymakers, to try to think through how we can work together to move the ball on innovative, practical solutions on housing.”
SEEC Vice Chair and Climate and Agriculture Task Force Co-Chair Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-01) spoke at a “Keeping Farmers on the Land” event for a conversation on farming, climate, and policy in America.
“It’s just so challenging to be a farmer right now. We’re tremendously worried about the impact of what’s going on,” said Congresswoman Pingree. “So many of our farmers have been able to utilize these conservation programs over the years, whether they were doing it through a climate change lens and saying, ‘You know, I want to play my part and do more to sequester carbon, to do more to reduce our impact on climate change.’ Or it’s just a cost-saver for them. And I think that at the bottom line, it’s this federal funding that has been a source for farmers, big and small, for so many different kinds of practices.”
SEEC Member Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury (NM-01) spoke at the “Local Heat, Federal Fire: NYC Climate Week’s Premiere Action” event to talk about the next steps for the climate movement to move forward on environmental justice.
“What I realized in the aftermath of the first Trump election was that if we don’t stand up, speak up, run for office, and make sure that we’re fighting every single day in our communities, we lose everything,” said Congresswoman Stansbury. “And we have already shown that we can defeat what their agenda is. And so I hope that over the days that you’ve been here in New York, whether you live here or you’ve traveled here for these conversations, that this has been a time for renewal, for creative ideas, for inspiration, for connections. And for the empowerment and grounding that you need for the fight ahead, because it is literally going to take every single one of us."
SEEC Co-Chair Congressman Paul Tonko (NY-20) joined the “Carbon Dioxide Removal Summit 2025” event to speak on the state of science-based, durable carbon dioxide removal policies at the federal level.
“There is no doubt we will be a much weaker and poorer nation because of the decisions of the Trump Administration. But I want to let you know, I am not giving up,” said Congressman Tonko. “And whether you are a carbon removal company, a buyer, a market facilitator, or a monitor, I want to stress that it is absolutely critical— for the future of this industry and our collective ability to achieve a net-zero economy— that you don’t either. I hope the Federal Government will return to being a partner in scaling carbon dioxide removal solutions in a few short years.”