Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the United States Senate, where he is fighting to position America as a leader in the clean energy economy and protect the Ocean State from the consequences of climate change.  As chairman of the Senate Budget Committee and a senior member of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, Whitehouse takes on the fossil fuel industry and spearheads policies combatting the climate crisis and strengthening environmental protections.   Senator Whitehouse is one of the Senate’s leading climate champions.  He co-founded the Senate Climate Action Task Force to build support for action to address carbon pollution.  Whitehouse shaped major climate components of Senate Democrats’ historic Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to push the US from 25 percent to 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.   Whitehouse has led the introduction of legislation establishing a price on carbon and instituting a carbon border adjustment, which would give American companies a step up in the global marketplace while steering the planet toward climate safety.  He has also crafted policies to curb profiteering by oil companies and combat the influence of fossil-fuel money in our politics.   As a co-founder of the Senate Oceans Caucus, Senator Whitehouse plays a key role in crafting bipartisan policies to protect our oceans.  To confront the major challenges of ocean plastic pollution, he passed the bipartisan Save Our Seas and Save Our Seas 2.0 Acts into law.  The senator also created the National Coastal Resilience Fund to restore and strengthen the natural infrastructure that protects coastal communities while safeguarding wildlife habitats.   A graduate of Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Whitehouse served as Rhode Island’s US attorney and state attorney general before being elected to the United States Senate in 2006.