Hill Heat

Full committee hearing on the FY2025 budget request.

Chair Ron Wyden (D – Ore.)

• Janet L. Yellen, Secretary, United States Department of the Treasury

The purpose of the hearing is to consider the nominations of:

• David Rosner to be a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the term expiring June 30, 2027;
• Lindsay S. See to be a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the term expiring June 30, 2028; and
• Judy W. Chang to be a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a term expiring June 30, 2029.

A full committee hearing entitled “Importing Global Governance: Examining the Dangers of Ceding Authority Over American Financial Regulation”.

The hearing is a reprise of the November hearing on global capital rules.

Full committee hearing on the FY2025 budget request.

• Shalanda D. Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget

On Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

• H.R. 1395 (Rep. Fitzpatrick), “Delaware River Basin Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2023”, to amend the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to reauthorize Delaware River Basin conservation programs;
• H.R. 5487 (Rep. Huffman), “Help Our Kelp Act”, to require the Secretary of Commerce to establish and carry out a grant program to conserve, restore, and manage kelp forest ecosystems;
• H.R. 6814 (Rep. Graves of LA), “Marine Fisheries Habitat Protection Act”, to require the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere to assess certain offshore oil and gas platforms and pipelines for potential use as artificial reefs; and
• H.R. 7020 (Rep. McClain), “Great Lakes Mapping Act”, to direct the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct high-resolution mapping of the lakebeds of the Great Lakes

Hearing memo

• Clay Porch, Director, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [All bills]
• Jennifer Boehme, Chief Executive Officer, Great Lakes Observing System [H.R. 7020]
• Chris Horton, Senior Director, Fisheries Policy, Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Bismarck, AR [H.R. 6814]
• Kelly Knutson, Director, Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed, Princeton, NJ [H.R. 1395]
• Deb Self, Senior Director of Restoration and Partnerships, Greater Farallones Association, San Francisco, CA [Minority Witness, H.R. 5487]

The Green New Deal Network is excited to see you this Wednesday for the next GND Happy Hour at Alero on U St. at 6pm.

We even have a special guest in town.

All are welcome at these events except the fossil fuel industry and its affiliates.

1301 U St NW, Washington DC

On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 2:15 p.m., in Room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Assessing Domestic Offshore Energy Reserves & Ensuring U.S. Energy Dominance.”

Hearing memo

• Dr. Walter Cruickshank, Deputy Director, U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
• Joe Dryer, President & CEO, Fairfield Geotechnologies
• Erik Milito, President, National Ocean Industries Association
• Amir Zaman, Partner & Commercial Director, Rystad Energy
• Kendall Dix, National Policy Director, Taproot Earth

On Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:

• H.R. 5015 (Rep. Leger Fernandez), “Seedlings for Sustainable Habitat Restoration Act of 2023”, for the collection and maintenance of native seeds and production of tree seedlings;
• H.R. 5499 (Rep. Miller-Meeks), “Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act”, to amend the Antiquities Act to increase congressional oversight with respect to the designation of national monuments;
• H.R. 6085 (Rep. Hageman), To prohibit the implementation of the Draft Resource Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement for the Rock Springs RMP Revision, Wyoming;
• H.R. 6209 (Rep. Titus), “Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act”, to amend the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area Act to adjust the boundary of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area;
• H.R. 6547 (Rep. Boebert), “Colorado Energy Prosperity Act”, to prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from implementing the Draft Resource Management Plan and Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Colorado River Valley Field Office and Grand Junction Field Office Resource Management Plans; and
• H.R. 7006 (Rep. Curtis), To prohibit natural asset companies from entering into any agreement with respect to land in the State of Utah or natural assets on or in such land.

Full committee markup.

• H.R. 7630, the Accelerating Networking, Cyberinfrastructure, and Hardware for Oceanic Research Act (ANCHOR Act, Mike Garcia, R-Calif.), to require a plan to improve the cybersecurity and telecommunications of the U.S. Academic Research Fleet
• H.R. 7073, the Next Generation Pipelines Research and Development Act (Randy Weber, R-Texas), to improve public-private partnerships and increase Federal research, development, and demonstration related to the evolution of next generation pipeline systems
• H.R. 7685, the Innovative Mitigation Partnerships for Asphalt and Concrete Technologies Act (IMPACT Act), to support research and development of advanced technologies to improve the efficiency of cement, concrete, and asphalt production
• H.R. 272, the Astronaut Safe Temporary Ride Options Act (ASTRO Act)
• H.R. 6219, the Accessing Satellite Data to Enable New Discoveries Act (ASCEND Act), directing the NASA Administrator to establish a commercial satellite data acquisition program with NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
• H.R. 7687, the NASA Streamlining Partnerships for Research and Education for Engineering and Science Act (SPREES Act)
• H.R. 4152, the Space Resources Institute Act
• H.R. 7686, the Malign Foreign Talent Recruitment Program Definition Clarification

Subcommittee hearing on the $51.42 billion Department of Energy FY2025 budget request, which has a 9% increase in defense spending and a 5% increase in non-defense spending from FY2023.

• Budget in brief

• Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy

The Budget includes $10.6 billion in DOE climate and clean energy research, development, demonstration, and deployment programs, including over $1 billion to improve technologies to cut pollution from industrial facilities, nearly $900 million to commercialize technologies like sustainable aviation fuel and zero-emission trucks to cut emissions from the transportation sector, and over $2.4 billion – a majority of which is included in the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Program – to improve carbon pollution-free electricity generation, transmission, distribution, and storage technologies for reliability, resilience, and decarbonization. Specifically, within the EERE Program, the budget includes $502 million for Vehicle Technologies Office, $280 million for Bioenergy Technologies Office, $318 million for Solar Energy Technologies Office, $199 million for Wind Energy Technologies Office, $179 million for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, and over $500 million for Advanced Materials/Manufacturing and Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonation Offices. In addition, the Budget invests in advancing climate modeling within the Biological and Environmental Research Program in the Office of Science. By investing $966 million in discretionary DOE industrial decarbonization activities, the Budget reflects the importance of supporting U.S. industrial decarbonization through innovation, targeted investment, and technical assistance. The Budget includes $8.5 billion across DOE to support researchers and entrepreneurs transforming innovations into commercial clean energy products, including in areas such as: offshore wind, industrial heat, sustainable aviation fuel, and grid infrastructure. Across DOE, the Budget provides over $325 million to support the research, development and commercialization of technologies and processes to increase the domestic supply of sustainable critical minerals and materials essential for several clean energy technologies. The Budget supports $76 million to advance technologies that can enable earlier detection of methane leaks and integrate across a network of methane monitoring sensors for more reliable measurement and mitigation and $150 million to make small quantities of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) available for ongoing advanced nuclear reactor demonstrations. The Budget also assumes enactment of the Administration’s request for $2.16 billion in FY 2024 supplemental funding to procure low-enriched uranium (LEU) and HALEU, which coupled with a long- term ban on imports of LEU and HALEU from Russia, would prompt sufficient private sector investment to reinvigorate U.S. uranium enrichment and reduce our current dependence on Russian imports for roughly 20 percent of LEU used in civilian nuclear power reactors. The $8.5 billion also includes $845 million for a Department-wide initiative to accelerate the viability of commercial fusion energy, coordinating academia, national laboratories, and the private sector, which supports the Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy. The Budget funds eight crosscutting DOE Energy Earthshots™ initiatives which could substantially reduce the cost of energy for the American consumer through innovations in clean energy generation, energy efficiency, and storage. In addition, the Budget provides $30 million to accelerate commercial demonstration projects through a new National Laboratory Demonstration Support Program.

The Budget provides a historic investment of $25 billion in the Nation’s nuclear security enterprise to implement the President’s National Defense Strategy and the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), including $19.9 billion for Weapons Activities.

The Budget includes $141.7 million for the Energy Information Agency (EIA).