Stop the Money Pipeline in partnership with Rainforest Action Network, Reclaim Finance, Third Act, and LittleSis just produced a groundbreaking report, titled “Better Options: how large companies and nonprofits can select climate-aligned credit card partners”
Retailers, like Costco, have co-branded credit cards with the largest funders of fossil fuels in the world: Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America.
But, we discovered: there are better options.
Out of the 20 largest credit card issuers in the United States, eight financial institutions have not provided any funding to the fossil fuel industry since 2021.
Come to this call to learn more about the key findings and how you can help stop fossil fuel expansion.
If you and thousands of your fellow consumers pressure Costco and other retailers to partner with better, greener credit card companies, both retailers, and subsequently banks, will be forced to act.
On Wednesday, February 25, at 10:00 a.m., U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, will hold a hearing to examine the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2026 and other ongoing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) projects, programs and priorities.
Witnesses:
Adam R. Telle, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Department of the Army
Lieutenant General William H. Graham Jr., Chief of Engineers and Commanding General, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army
Stevan Pearce, of New Mexico, to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management, vice Tracy Stone-Manning, resigned.
Kyle Haustveit, of North Dakota, to be Under Secretary of Energy for Infrastructure, vice Preston Wells Griffith, resigned.
David LaCerte, of Louisiana, to be a Member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a term expiring June 30, 2031. (Reappointment)
Throughout his 14-year career in Congress and later as the chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Pearce opposed public ownership of lands and advocated for selling off the very resources the BLM was created to steward. While in Congress, Pearce sponsored legislation that directed the U.S. Forest Service and BLM to sell public lands to either state governments or private buyers. In a 2012 speech, he explicitly stated he wanted a future president to “reverse this trend of public ownership of lands.”
Pearce’s disdain for our public lands extends to the agencies that manage them. As a member of Congress, he encouraged county governments in his district to violate federal laws on Forest Service lands inside their borders. After leaving Congress, as chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Pearce unsuccessfully lobbied the Interior Department to drastically shrink the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, despite it being an economic boon to Doña Ana County.
Haustveit, a former petroleum engineer, is assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy. Throughout his career at Devon Energy, Haustveit led teams that pioneered diagnostic techniques now used worldwide to improve hydraulic fracturing and resource development. He later directed Devon Energy’s Energy Ventures team, driving investments in emerging technologies such as geothermal, carbon utilization, lithium extraction, and produced water treatment.
LaCerte is a Project 2025 contributor who worked for the Trump White House in the Office of Personnel Management before confirmation to FERC on a party-line vote in October 2025.
At the State of the Union (SOTU), Republicans in Congress are once again bending the knee to Trump and hanging their constituents out to dry. Nobody should participate in Trump’s vanity project, and that’s why Democratic leaders, MoveOn members, and everyday Americans most impacted by Trump’s chaos are coming together for the People’s State of the Union.
President Trump has spent the first year of his administration making lives worse for Americans: slashing health care, sending masked ICE agents to murder our neighbors, and passing tax cuts for the Epstein class. We cannot give Trump the attention he wants, or validate his lies to the American people. We cannot treat this SOTU like business as usual.
Join MeidasTouch and MoveOn as we present the People’s State of the Union alongside elected officials, partners, allies and directly impacted Americans.
In person at 3rd St. between Jefferson and Madison on the National Mall or livestream.
Speakers:
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03)
Representative Becca Balint (D-VT)
Representative Greg Casar (TX-35)
Representative Veronica Escobar (TX-16)
Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07)
Representative Delia Ramirez (IL-03)
Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12)
Katie Phang
Joy Reid
Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, CEO & President, Interfaith Alliance
Sara Haghdoosti, Chief of Program, MoveOn Civic Action
S. 3635, Fort Peck Water System Reauthorization Act
S. 3684, Water Power Research and Development Reauthorization Act
S. 3693, Large-Scale Water Recycling Reauthorization Act
S. 3723, A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a project to supply municipal, rural, and industrial water from the Missouri River to the Western Dakota Regional Water System, and for other purposes.
S. 3725, A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a project to supply municipal, rural, and industrial water to expand the capacity and reach of the Lewis and Clark Rural Water System, Inc. (doing business as “Lewis & Clark Regional Water System”), in the States of Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota.
S. 3732, A bill to amend the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act to authorize assistance under the storage program, and for other purposes.
S. 3736, A bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of constructing a project to supply municipal, rural, and industrial water to the Dakota Mainstem Regional Water System service area in the States of South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota, and for other purposes.
S. 3737, A bill to amend the Reclamation States Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991 to provide financial and technical assistance to eligible entities for the conduct of innovative approaches to voluntary water partnership agreements among multiple water users and projects conducted by individual agricultural entities, and for other purposes.
S. 3738, A bill to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to reauthorize the large-scale water recycling and reuse program, to establish a Water Conveyance Improvement Program, and for other purposes.
S. 3743, A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to carry out a feasibility study on a selective water withdrawal system at Glen Canyon Dam, and for other purposes.
S. 3792, A bill to provide for the establishment of a Water Project Navigators Program, and for other purposes.
On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 10:30 a.m., in room 1334 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
H.R. 1501 (Rep. Shreve), “Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025”
H.R. 2969 (Rep. Wittman), “Finding Opportunities for Resource Exploration Act” or the “Finding ORE Act”
H.R. 4781 (Rep. Barr), “Rare Earth Solutions and Carbon Utilization Enhancement Act of 2025” or the “RESCUE Act of 2025”
Mark Compton, Executive Director, American Exploration & Mining Association, Spokane Valley, WA
Sean Pi, Founding Partner, Heeney Capital, West Palm Beach, FL
Adam Johnson, CEO, Principal Minerals, Southlake, TX
Chelsea Hodgkins, Senior Auto Supply Chains Policy Advocate, Public Citizen, Washington, D.C. [Minority Witness]
H.R. 1501, the Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025, amends the FAST Act to formally include mining projects within the federal expedited permitting process. It further prohibits the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council from implementing 2023 regulations that would have restricted which mining projects qualify for these accelerated, “fast-track” reviews.
H.R. 2969, the Finding ORE Act, is bipartisan legislation that allows the U.S. government to send geologists and technology to other countries to help them find buried mineral deposits, provided those countries give U.S. companies first dibs on mining them.
H.R. 4781, the RESCUE Act of 2025, grants “fast-track” status to projects that extract or process minerals from toxic waste sources, specifically acid mine drainage, mine tailings, and coal byproducts.
H.R. 5929 empowers the President to fast-track mining projects by legally linking a Presidential Determination under the Defense Production Act to the federal permitting process. After such a designation, the bill compels federal agencies to adopt a synchronized, accelerated schedule for environmental and land-use reviews under the FAST-41 system.
H.R. 7126, the bipartisan SECURE Minerals Act of 2025, would establish a $2.5 billion government-owned corporation, the Strategic Resilience Reserve Corporation, to increase the domestic supply of raw materials for technology through investments in private mining and processing projects, including ownership stakes, loans, and purchase guarantees.
H.R. 7458 accelerates the U.S. mining permit process by imposing strict, short deadlines for environmental reviews and making approval the default if agencies fail to meet them. The bill limits long-term scientific analysis, narrows the scope of environmental impact studies, and drastically reduces the timeframe for public legal challenges to mining projects.
On Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 10:15 a.m. in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold an oversight hearing titled “Bureaucratic Delays and the Costs to Ratepayers and Electric Power Systems.”
Ralph Armstrong, Senior Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, Vacaville, CA
Jim Anderson, CEO and General Manager, Midstate Electric Cooperative, La Pine, OR (member company of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)
Jason Bowling, CEO, Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Cooperative, Inc., Sierra Vista, AZ (member company of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association)
Mason Baker, CEO and General Manager, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, Salt Lake City, UT (member company of the American Public Power Association)
Randy S. Howard, General Manager, Northern California Power Agency, Roseville, CA (member company of the American Public Power Association)
Jesse Murray, Senior Vice President of Energy Delivery, NV Energy, Reno, NV
Dr. Carolyn Mahan, Professor, Biology and Environmental Studies, The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, PA; Member, Right-of-Way Stewardship Council [Minority Witness]
Christina Hayes, Executive Director, Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, Washington, DC [Minority Witness]
Title II of the “Fix Our Forests” Act strengthens existing expedited authorities for electricity rights-of-ways by allowing hazard tree removal within 150 feet of power lines, rather than the current 10-foot limit. The legislation also requires automatic approval, after 120 days, of vegetation management plans
submitted by electric utilities, while section 204 establishes a new categorical exclusion for the
approval of vegetation management plans and routine activities carried out consistent with such
plans. Additionally, FOFA authorizes USFS to approve hazard tree removal for maintenance
purposes near power lines without requiring a separate timber sale.
The Subcommittee on Environment will hold a hearing on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at
10:15 a.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. The hearing is entitled, “From Source
to Tap: A Hearing to Examine Challenges and Opportunities for Safe, Reliable, and Affordable
Drinking Water.”
Eric Hill, General Manager, Russellville Water & Sewer Board, Russellville, Ala., on behalf of the National Rural Water Association;
Nicole Murley, Deputy Inspector General performing the duties of the Inspector General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
Lindsey Rechtin, CPA, President & CEO, Northern Kentucky Water District, on behalf of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies
Erik Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health & Food, Natural Resources Defense Council
The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), signed into law on December 16, 1974, by
President Ford, is the main federal law regulating drinking water and protecting drinking water
sources. The law directs the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
to establish national primary drinking water regulations to protect public health and to administer
federal funding mechanisms for drinking water infrastructure. This authority includes regulating
contaminants that pose health risks in public water systems and establishing the Drinking Water
State Revolving Fund (DWSRF).
The SDWA applies to Public Water Systems (PWS), defined as systems that provide
water for human consumption to the public through pipes or other constructed conveyances. A
system qualifies as a PWS if it has at least 15 service connections or regularly serves at least 25
individuals. Systems below this threshold, including individual private drinking water wells, are
not covered by the SDWA and instead are regulated at the state and local level. Today there are
approximately 150,000 public water systems nationwide that provide drinking water service to a
vast majority of the U.S. According to the EPA’s Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey
and Assessment, public water systems nationwide face substantial challenges in replacing aging
pipes, modernizing treatment facilities, improving storage, and enhancing system resilience.
The recent Potomac Interceptor sewage spill has underscored the broader deterioration of
aging water and wastewater infrastructure nationwide. The incident resulted in the release of
hundreds of millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac River, a primary source of
drinking water for communities across Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. This sewer
break raises concerns about downstream contamination and how untreated sewage can impact
sources for drinking water.
