Climate science, policy, politics, and action
On Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 1:00 p.m. ET, in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building and via Cisco WebEx, the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States (SCIP) will hold an oversight hearing entitled “Examining Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta: The Implications of the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Tribal Sovereignty.”
On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals’ ruling in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta by determining that the State maintains concurrent jurisdiction with the federal government to prosecute major crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian Country. The 5-4 opinion led by Justice Kavanaugh held that Indian Country within a state’s territory is part of the State, which therefore confers State jurisdiction to the prosecution of crimes committed in Indian Country unless it is otherwise preempted.
Castro-Huerta overturns nearly 200 years of federal Indian legal precedent and further complicates an already complex framework for the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed in Indian Country. This expansion of State jurisdiction is anticipated to add greater uncertainty over what government entity maintains the authority to deliver public safety services on tribal lands and will likely influence the quality of such services.
The oversight hearing will provide an overview of Castro-Huerta’s national impacts in Indian County and explore how this ruling may pose additional threats to tribal sovereignty.
Witnesses
Panel I: Administration Panel
Panel II: Tribal Leader Panel
Panel III: Legal Panel
Witnesses:
Join the Stop the Money Pipeline coalition on Friday,
September 16 at 2 pm ET/11 am PT for a global online
event
to kick off a month of action in defense of forests.
Speakers, including Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, activist and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and Maria Luisa Mendonça of the Network for Human Rights and Social Justice in Brazil, will share why forests are critical to climate justice, what Indigenous and frontline communities are doing to stop deforestation, and how you can join the fight to hold Wall Street and corporations accountable.
A joint hearing with the Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture and the Committee on Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials.
THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRS will meet in OPEN SESSION, HYBRID FORMAT to conduct a hearing entitled, “Oversight of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Witness:
At the hearing, members will hear from witnesses on the current status of FEMA’s recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands five years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Dina Titus (D-Nev.)
The full Committee, led by Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will hold a markup on the following Resolutions of Inquiry:
On Thursday, September 15, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. ET, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Ro Khanna, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment, will hold a hearing to examine Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell’s record-breaking profits, discuss the adequacy of their climate pledges, and hear firsthand accounts from survivors of climate change-induced severe weather events.
In 2021, Exxon’s net profits were more than $23 billion, Chevron reported profits of $15.6 billion, BP netted its highest profits in eight years at $12.8 billion, and Shell brought in $21.1 billion. The fossil fuel industry’s profits have only increased in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the past quarter, since the start of the Ukraine War, five major oil companies raked in $55 billion.
Despite reaping record profits, these companies have not taken the steps that scientists say are needed to prevent the worst climate impacts. Instead, they continue their greenwashing campaign by publicly supporting the Paris Agreement and claiming to be working towards a net-zero future, while issuing incomplete and misleading climate pledges and making inadequate investments in unproven energy sources and technologies.
At the same time, the climate crisis is growing more severe, with record heat waves, droughts, flooding, and other extreme weather harming Americans and people around the world.
The hearing is part of the Committee’s investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s long-running campaign to spread disinformation about climate change and greenwash its role in causing global warming.
At the Committee’s earlier hearing in October 2021, fossil fuel executives finally admitted under oath that burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change, which is an existential threat to our planet—but they refused to stop spending money to block climate action.
Earlier this year, the Committee invited five board members from Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and BP to testify at a hearing about the companies’ climate pledges. They failed to appear. The Committee once again invited the board members to testify, but they once again declined to appear on the date requested.
Witnesses
Panel 1
Panel 2