Creating a Climate Resilient America: Strengthening the U.S. Financial System and Expanding Economic Opportunity
This hearing will explore the ways that the climate crisis exacerbates economic harm and injustice, and identify strategies to strengthen financial systems and enhance access to capital to support community resilience and economic recovery.
Witnesses:- Rostin Behnam, Commissioner, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As sponsor of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC), Commissioner Behnam engages leading market experts and public consumer groups on issues relating to evolving market structures and movement of risk across clearinghouses, exchanges, intermediaries, market makers, and end-users. Commissioner Behnam convened the Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee to provide a report to the MRAC on climate-related financial and market risks.
- Joanna Syroka, Senior Underwriter and Director of New Markets, Fermat Capital Management. Dr. Syroka has extensive experience in structuring and placing risk transfer programs in both emerging and developed markets. Prior to joining Fermat Capital in 2017, she was the director of research & development at African Risk Capacity (ARC), Africa’s first sovereign insurance pool, which she helped design and establish in 2012. At ARC, she led the development of their parametric drought, flood, cyclone, pandemic, and climate insurance initiatives.
- Maggie Monast, Director of Working Lands, Environmental Defense Fund. Monast works with farmers, food companies, agricultural organizations, and others to create an agricultural system that drives climate stability, clean water, and food security. Specifically, Monast works to quantify the farm financial impacts of conservation practice adoption, collaborates with major corporations to develop sustainability initiatives, and develops innovative financial incentives to advance sustainable agriculture.
- Rich Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath. Powell leads ClearPath, whose mission is to develop and advance conservative policies that accelerate clean energy innovation. Rich served as a member of the 2019 Advisory Committee to the Export Import Bank of the United States. He is also on the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center’s Advisory Group.
H.R. 5986, To restore, reaffirm, and reconcile environmental justice and civil rights, provide for the establishment of the Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice Compliance and Enforcement, and for other purposes.“Environmental Justice for
- Dr. Robert Bullard Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University and Father of environmental justice
- Dr. Mildred McLain Co-founder and Executive Director of the Harambee House/Citizens for Environmental Justice.
- Andrea Vidaurre Co-Founder of People’s Collective for Environmental Justice
- Derrick Hollie (Minority Witness) President, Reaching America
Generating Equity: Improving Clean Energy Access and Affordability
- Hearing memorandum
- Frank Pallone opening statement Witnesses
- Ariel Drehobl, Senior Research Associate, Local Policy American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
- Tony G. Reames, Ph.D., Assistant Professor School for Environment and Sustainability University of Michigan
- Robert Bryce, Visiting Fellow The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity
- Alexandra M. Wyatt Policy and Regulatory Manager GRID Alternatives
Challenges and Successes of Conservation Programs in 2020
Witnesses
Panel One- Kevin D. Norton Acting Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Washington, D.C.
- Tim Palmer President, National Association of Conservation Districts, Truro, IA
- Steve Patterson Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Communications and Government Affairs, Southern States Cooperative, Henrico, VA
- Dr. Karen Waldrop Chief Conservation Officer, Ducks Unlimited, Memphis, TN
- Johnathan Coppess Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Coping with Compound Crises: Extreme Weather, Social Injustice, and a Global Pandemic
- Chairwoman Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) of the Subcommittee on Environment
- Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)
- Dr. Roxane Cohen Silver, Professor of Psychological Science, Medicine, and Public Health, University of California, Irvine
- Dr. Samantha Montano, Assistant Professor of Emergency Management, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
The 2020 Wildfire Year: Response and Recovery Efforts
Witness:
- John Phipps, Deputy Chief for State and Private Forestry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
Environmental Justice Now Tour: Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- Dr. Beverly Wright, Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
- Dr. Robert D. Bullard, Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University
- Dr. N’Taki Osborne Jelks Assistant professor in environmental and health sciences at Spelman College in Atlanta.
- Joy Semien, graduate of Dillard University (B.S.), Texas Southern University (M.A.)
Solving the Climate Crisis: Building a Vibrant and Just Clean Energy Economy
The hearing will focus on ensuring a just, equitable transition to a net-zero clean energy economy that creates good-paying, high-quality jobs.
Witnesses:- Dr. Ana Baptista, Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and Associate Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center, The New School, on behalf of New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and the Equitable and Just Climate Forum. Dr. Baptista’s research and professional practice focuses on environmental and climate justice. She works directly with impacted communities and coalitions to support the advancement of community-led alternatives to achieve environmental justice.
- Jason Walsh, Executive Director, BlueGreen Alliance. Walsh has more than twenty years of experience at state and federal levels in policy development and advocacy in a range of issue areas, including climate, clean energy, and economic and workforce development. He previously served in the Obama administration, as the Director of the Office of Strategic Programs in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he led the Obama administration’s efforts to align and scale up federal investments in workers and communities impacted by the shift away from coal in the power sector.
- Beth Soholt, Executive Director, Clean Grid Alliance (CGA_Midwest), on behalf of American Council on Renewable Energy and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid. Soholt has more than 15 years of experience working with the electric industry, with a focus on helping overcome the barriers to bringing wind power to market. She holds a seat on the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO) Advisory Committee, representing the Environmental Sector.
- Michael Shellenberger (Minority Witness), Founder and President, Environmental Progress
Climate Council Conversation: "Why Democrats Should Run on Climate"
Join our chair Michelle Deatrick July 22 at 7pm ET as she facilitates a conversation between actress and activist Jane Fonda, Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM), Sunrise Movement National Spokesperson Naina Agrawal-Hardin, and 350 Action’s North America Director, Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, about why Democrats need to run on climate.
An Update on the Climate Crisis: From Science to Solutions
Witnesses:
- Dr. Pamela McElwee, Associate Professor of Human Ecology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- Dr. Richard Murray, Deputy Director & Vice President for Research, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
- Dr. Heidi Steltzer, Professor of Environment and Sustainability, Fort Lewis College, Colorado
- Taryn Fransen, Senior Fellow, Global Climate Program, World Resources Institute
- Michael Shellenberger, Founder and President, Environmental Progress