On Wednesday, December 7, the full Committee will hold a
hearing
entitled, “Fulfilling our Pact: Ensuring Effective Implementation of
Toxic Exposure Legislation.”
The
hearing
will examine legislation passed by the U.S. Congress during its 116th
and 117th sessions to address the climate crisis, invest in a clean
energy economy, and support a healthy, resilient, and just America. It
will also highlight additional policies and investments needed from
Congress to address the challenges and consequences of the climate
crisis.
The committee will receive testimony from:
Greg Wetstone, President and CEO, American
Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE). Wetstone leads
ACORE’s efforts to unite finance, policy,
and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy
economy. He previously served as Vice President for Terra-Gen Power
LLC, a renewable energy company with
utility-scale wind, solar, and geothermal energy facilities; as Senior
Director for Government and Public Affairs at the American Wind Energy
Association; and as Director of Programs at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, where he founded the legislative program.
Alice Hill, Senior Fellow for Climate Change Policy, Council on
Foreign Relations (CFR). As the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for
energy and the environment at CFR, Hill
focuses on the risks, consequences, and responses associated with
climate change. She previously served as special assistant to
President Obama and senior director for resilience policy on the
National Security Council staff, where she led the development of
national policy to build resilience to catastrophic risks, including
climate change.
Dana Johnson, Senior Director of Strategy and Federal Policy,
WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Johnson
leads advocacy, regulatory, and policy-setting at
WE ACT, an organization that aims to ensure
that people of color and low income residents participate meaningfully
in the creation of environmental health and protection policies. She
is also a Board Member of Green 2.0, a non-profit that works to
diversify the voices and leadership of environmental movements and
causes.
Rev. Dr. Jessica Moerman, Vice President for Science and Policy,
Evangelical Environmental Network. Dr. Moerman is a climate and
environmental scientist, pastor, educator, and advocate. Prior to
joining EEN, she was a
AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at
the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Moerman received her Ph.D. in Earth
and Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology and
has held research positions at John Hopkins University, University of
Michigan, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Brad Markell, Executive Director, AFL-CIO
Industrial Union Council (IUC). Markell leads the
AFL-CIO IUC, which
works to build and advance policy frameworks that support
manufacturing in the United States and is comprised of 11 unions with
over 2 million members, including nearly one million directly employed
in the manufacturing sector. Previously, he was an International
Representative with the UAW in Detroit for
15 years, where his duties included helping develop and advance the
union’s positions on energy and environmental policy.
Dr. Michelle Michot Foss, Fellow in Energy, Minerals, and Materials,
Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University. At the Baker
Institute, Dr. Foss develops policies and conducts research to help
build capacity on non-fuel minerals supply chains. She previously
served as the chief energy economist and head of the Bureau of
Economic Geology’s Center for Energy Economics at the University of
Texas at Austin. She was also a UH Shell Interdisciplinary Scholar
with grants on North American gas and power integration and national
oil companies.
The purpose of this
hearing
is to discuss the findings of a recent report on sexual harassment and
assault in Antarctica. The hearing will also examine the unique
characteristics of remote research sites, including those managed by
contractors, changes that have been made since the publication of the
report, and additional steps that must be taken to protect those
conducting and supporting the valuable research in Antarctica and other
remote research sites.
On Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET, the Subcommittee Oversight
& Investigations will hold a hybrid oversight
hearing
on overcrowding in national parks. This hearing will take place in 1324
Longworth House Office Building and via Cisco WebEx online video
conferencing.
Witness List
Jeff
Bradybaugh,
Superintendent, Zion National Park, National Park Service
Hannah Downey, Policy Director, Property and Environment
Research Center
Dr. Will
Rice,
Assistant Professor of Outdoor Recreation and Wildland Management,
University of Montana
Join Jane Fonda in Washington, D.C. for Fire Drill Fridays’ first
in-person rally in
almost three years! This Friday, activists, community advocates,
environmentalists, and celebrities will come together in the Capitol to
call attention to the growing climate crisis and to demand that Congress
reject Senator Joe Manchin’s “Dirty Deal” and that President Joe Biden
declare a climate emergency.
Jane will be accompanied by a number of speakers, including activists
Jerome Foster, the youngest member of the White House Environmental
Justice Advisory Council, Roishetta Ozane, Organizing Director of
Southwest Louisiana/Southeast TX for Healthy Gulf, and Maria
Lopez-Nunez, Deputy Director of Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC),
as well as Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Representative Raúl
Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
Since going virtual in 2020 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, Fire Drill Fridays has
reached more than 11 million viewers. Washington, D.C. is the first of
several cities Fire Drill Fridays plans to visit in the coming year. In
2023, it will host rallies in the Gulf Coast and California, areas of
the United States already seeing the visceral changes brought on by the
climate crisis – and whose communities are among the most impacted.
U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Chair of the Subcommittee on
Space and Science, will convene a subcommittee
hearing
titled “Landsat at 50 & the Future of U.S. Satellite-based Earth
Observation” at 10:00 a.m. ET on Thursday, December 1, 2022. This
subcommittee hearing will highlight critical Earth Observation (EO) data
provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the United
States Geological Survey (USGS), which recently celebrated Landsat’s
50th Anniversary. The hearing will also discuss the rise of commercial
providers and improving access to EO data to spur economic growth.
Finally, the hearing will highlight EO value-added services enabling
precision agriculture, improved city planning, water management,
wildland fire prevention and detection, and disaster response.
Witnesses:
Steve Volz, Assistant Administrator for Satellite and Information
Services and Acting Assistant Secretary for Environmental Observation
and Prediction, NOAA
Kate Calvin, Chief Scientist, NASA Daniel
Jablonsky, President and Chief Executive Officer, Maxar Technologies
Kevin Gallagher, Associate Director, Core Science Systems,
USGS
Waleed Abdalati, Director, Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
The
hearing
will be held on Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 10:00 am in Room SD-366
of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, DC. The purpose of
this hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:
S.
3112,
to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to establish a Hydrogen
Technologies for Heavy Industry Grant Program, and for other purposes
(Hydrogen for Industry Act of 2021);
S.
3152,
to amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to disqualify certain borrowers
from receiving a guarantee for a project, and for other purposes;
S.
3915,
to require the Secretary of Energy to provide technology grants to
strengthen domestic mining education, and for other purposes (Mining
Schools Act of 2022);
S.
3957,
to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to make certain
activities eligible for grants from the Abandoned Mine Reclamation
Fund, and for other purposes (STREAM Act); This bill allows a state to
set aside up to 30% of its annual grant for abandoned mine reclamation
provided under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for the
treatment and abatement of acid mine drainage, which is the release of
acidic water from abandoned coal mines.
S.
3978,
to require the Secretary of Energy to carry out a program to operate a
uranium reserve consisting of uranium produced and converted in the
United States and a program to ensure the availability of uranium
produced, converted, and enriched in the United States, and for other
purposes (NO RUSSIA Act of 2022);
S.
4420,
to provide for advancements in carbon removal research,
quantification, and commercialization, including by harnessing natural
processes, and for other purposes (CREST Act of 2022);
S.
4424,
to amend the Recreation and Public Purposes Act to authorize sales and
leases of certain Federal land to federally recognized Indian Tribes,
and for other purposes (Recreation and Public Purposes Tribal Parity
Act);
S.
4515,
to require the Secretary of Energy to stipulate, as a condition on the
sale at auction of any crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
that the crude oil not be exported to certain countries, and for other
purposes (No Emergency Crude Oil for Foreign Adversaries Act);
S.
4542,
to establish the Dolores River National Conservation Area and the
Dolores River Special Management Area in the State of Colorado, to
protect private water rights in the State, and for other purposes
(Dolores River National Conservation Area and Special Management Area
Act);
S.
4579,
to amend the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2015, to extend certain deadlines applicable to
pilot projects to increase Colorado River System water to address
effects of historic drought conditions, and for other purposes
(Colorado River Basin Conservation Act);
S.
4651,
to amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to require the
Secretary of Energy to stipulate, as a condition on the sale at
auction of any petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve, that the petroleum products not be exported to certain
countries, to prohibit such sales to certain state-owned entities, and
for other purposes;
S.
4732,
to authorize the Georgetown African American Historic Landmark Project
and Tour to establish a commemorative work in the District of Columbia
and its environs, and for other purposes (Enslaved Voyages Memorial
Act);
S.
4860,
to provide for the establishment of a grazing management program on
Federal land in Malheur County, Oregon, and for other purposes
(Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owhyee Act);
S.
4995,
to require the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the
Interior to prioritize the completion of the Continental Divide
National Scenic Trail, and for other purposes (Continental Divide
Trail Completion Act);
S.
5129,
to modify the boundary of the Mammoth Cave National Park in the State
of Kentucky;
S.___,
discussion draft to establish a new organization to manage nuclear
waste, provide a consensual process for siting nuclear waste
facilities, ensure adequate funding for managing nuclear water, and
for other purposes (Nuclear Waste Administration Act); and
S.J. Res.
62,
approving the location of a memorial to commemorate the commitment of
the United States to a free press by honoring journalists who
sacrificed their lives in service to that cause.
Witnesses:
Kathryn Huff, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department
of Energy
Nada Wolff Culver, Deputy Director, Policy & Programs, Bureau of Land
Management, U.S. Department of the Interior
Doug MacIntyre, Deputy Director for the Office of Petroleum Reserves,
U.S. Department of Energy
Join Jane Fonda in Washington, D.C. for Fire Drill Fridays’ first
in-person rally in
almost three years! This Friday, activists, community advocates,
environmentalists, and celebrities will come together in the Capitol to
call attention to the growing climate crisis and to demand that Congress
reject Senator Joe Manchin’s “Dirty Deal” and that President Joe Biden
declare a climate emergency.