U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) last week announced the introduction of his first bill to the House of Representatives, which tackles climate change, a topic that continues the work of his predecessor, Henry Waxman.

Congressman Ted Lieu

The Climate Solutions Act of 2015 proposes changes in three major categories in relation to environmental and climate change issues: renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon pollution.

“It feels fantastic,” Lieu said of authoring his first bill. “Part of what this bill does is to take what California has done on climate change and make it nationwide. I believe the way we solve the climate change crisis is for America to do what California has done and for the rest of the world to do what California has done. In California, we have grown in population but our energy consumption has pretty much remained flat.”

Lieu co-authored the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, when he was a state assemblyman, which outlined the California’s climate change priorities.

The first part of the new national bill would empower the U.S. Department of Energy to set a renewable energy portfolio goal — 40 percent of all electric energy would come from renewable sources by 2030, and 80 percent by 2050.

“The public wants us to invest in fuels that never run out,” Lieu said.

Second, the bill would allow the department of energy to increase energy efficiency savings targets starting in 2018, and increasing each year until 2028.

“It’s not talking about choosing a certain type of fuel over another one, it’s just saying that whatever we are doing now, we just want to make it more efficient,” Lieu said. “I think across both sides of the aisle, people favor energy efficiency.”

The final issue the bill examines is allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to set historic targets for reducing carbon pollution: 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2035 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Lieu said it was important to carry on the work of Waxman, who also championed the environment.

“I’m very honored to be able to carry on Congressman Waxman’s legacy of working on the environment as well as climate change,” Lieu said. “He is a living legend with numerous laws in place that are helping Americans.”

Waxman said he has been happy with Lieu’s work so far, and the climate bill is important, even if it might not garner the support it needs to pass Congress.

“I’m very pleased that he has introduced this bill and that he is carrying on the fight to have us respond in a rational and urgent way to what I think is an enormous threat,” Waxman said. “I think it’s a good bill and I think it is unfortunate that the Republican leadership will probably not even allow it to be brought up because they still deny the science of climate change and have no sense of responsibility that we should be doing anything on it.”

Lieu said he believes the conversation is shifting on climate change, and that the bill is not as far-fetched as some think.

“Now, it’s those who deny climate change who are ridiculed,” Lieu said. “This is a bill to push Congress and continue to build a movement to act on climate change as soon as possible. If we don’t act on this, it’s going to become more and more destructive and affect how our grandchildren will live, and whether they can live.”

Later this spring, Lieu’s climate change bill will go before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which it would have to pass before full House consideration.