Michael knows climate change is not a problem we can push off to the next generation. Persistent droughts and wildfires threaten the businesses of farmers and ranchers in Colorado. Warming temperatures endanger skiing, fly fishing, and hiking in communities across the West. Increasing carbon pollution is threatening the health of our children. Michael believes in a comprehensive approach to combat climate change that includes commonsense actions to reduce carbon pollution and increase the resiliency of our communities, all while growing the economy.

In the Senate, Michael has championed efforts to both protect existing policies that address climate change and implement new, forward-looking measures to combat this growing threat. He is the only senator on both the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis and the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus. In 2017, he cast the deciding vote that kept in place standards to reduce methane emissions on public lands, which harm Colorado’s air quality. He fought sweeping rollbacks of climate policies—including the Paris Agreement, Clean Power Plan, and fuel economy standards—and opposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget. He also led an effort to standardize the metric that federal agencies use to measure the cost of climate pollution.

Michael recognizes that the corruption of inaction in the current age of polarization will leave a less safe and healthy planet for his children and those of future generations. That’s why he has repeatedly said he is willing to work with anyone to break through Washington gridlock and address the economic and environmental realities of climate change. Two of the numerous bipartisan bills he has introduced include helping the coal industry reduce its carbon pollution and securing federal disaster funding to rebuild more resilient and efficient energy systems.