The purpose of the hearing is to consider the nomination of the
Honorable Debra Haaland to be the Secretary of the Interior.
Introductions by:
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)
Members of the committee may participate in person or online. The
committee will follow guidelines developed in consultation with the
Office of the Attending Physician and the Senate Rules Committee to
protect the health of members, staff, and the public. This includes
maintaining six-foot social distance spacing in the hearing room.
Pursuant to this guidance, Senate office buildings are not open to the
public other than official business visitors and credentialed press at
this time. Accordingly, in-person visitors cannot be accommodated at
this hearing.
The hearing will be webcast live on the committee’s website, and an
archived video will be available shortly after the hearing is complete.
Witness testimony will be available on the website at the start of the
hearing.
Winter Storm Uri has devastated an unprepared, unregulated Texas grid
leaving millions without power and at risk of exposure, carbon monoxide
poisoning, and death.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, alongside the US right wing media
apparatus, spent their spare time finding ways to blame this preventable
disaster on wind energy and the Green New Deal. Texas Senator Cruz
abandoned his constituents during the deadly storm to vacation in
Mexico. The wealthy and powerful will do everything they can to evade
the climate crisis they profit from.
Come Saturday at 2PM Central to learn the truth about what
happened,
how climate change and capitalism are at the root of the crisis, and
what we can do to stop this from happening again. Author, journalist,
and climate expert Kate Aronoff will join us to explain the situation,
and directly impacted comrades in Texas will share their experiences and
where our movement goes from here. We will also share mutual aid
resources and other ways for you to best help out.
Even after every vote has been cast, the fight for the
Green New Deal will be far from over.
We know it might take days or even weeks for every ballot to be counted.
Trump is already openly refusing to leave office even if he loses. And
even if Joe Biden is declared the winner, we need to make it clear from
Day 1 that we won’t back down until he makes the Green New Deal the law
of the land.
The Climate Action Symposia series aims to advance our community’s
understanding and expand our capacity to generate solutions for the
urgent global challenge of climate change. The six symposia examine the
current state of climate science and policy, as well as pathways for
decarbonization of the global economy. We will also look at how
universities can and should contribute solutions, including
MIT’s efforts under our Plan for Action on
Climate Change.
The fifth of MIT’s six Climate Action
Symposia, The Role of Research Universities and
MIT’s Climate Initiatives, will be held
virtually on Tuesday, October 20, 2020. Topics will include:
how research universities can help the world deal with the climate
crisis;
initiatives being developed by MIT to reduce
carbon emissions;
Two former Obama Administration officials discuss how the United States
might address climate change with foreign policy measures. They argue
for “a full mobilization at home and an unhesitating commitment to
leadership abroad” along with a willingness to use American “political
capital and economic resources to drive the decarbonization of the
global economy.”
John Podesta is the founder and a member of the Board of Directors for
the Center for American Progress. Podesta served as counselor to
President Barack Obama, where he was responsible for coordinating the
administration’s climate policy and initiatives. In 2008, he served as
co-chair of President Obama’s transition team. He was a member of the
U.N. Secretary General’s High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the
Post-2015 Development Agenda. Podesta previously served as White House
chief of staff to President William J. Clinton. He chaired Hillary
Clinton’s campaign for president in 2016.
Todd Stern is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
concentrating on climate change. Stern served from January 2009 until
April 2016, as the special envoy for climate change at the Department
of State. He was President Obama’s chief climate negotiator, leading
the U.S. effort in negotiating the Paris Agreement and in all
bilateral and multilateral climate negotiations in the seven years
leading up to Paris. Stern also participated in the development of
U.S. domestic climate and clean energy policy. He is a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Moderators
William Antholis serves as director and CEO
of the Miller Center. Immediately prior, he was managing director at
The Brookings Institution, and from 1995 to 1999 he served in
government. At the White House, he was director of international
economic affairs on the staff of the National Security Council and
National Economic Council, where he served as the chief staff person
for the G8 Summits in 1997 and 1998. Antholis is the author of Inside
Out India and China: Local Politics Go Global and, with Strobe Talbot,
Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming.
Deborah Lawrence is a professor of Environmental Sciences at the
University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the links between
tropical deforestation and climate change. She has spent the past
twenty-five years doing field-based research in Indonesia, Costa Rica,
Mexico and Cameroon. Professor Lawrence and her students conduct
interdisciplinary research with partners in hydrology, atmospheric
science, economics, anthropology, ethics, engineering, and law to
understand the drivers and consequences of land use change. This work
has gained her a Sustainability Science Award from the Ecological
Society of America, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Jefferson Science
Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fulbright
Scholarship.
You’ve seen the headlines. Ice in the Arctic is melting at record rates
and warming at twice the global average – and the Trump administration
continues to hand over control of the Arctic to Big Oil. We’re hosting a
forum on Monday, October 5, to learn how the higher temperatures are
wreaking havoc on wildlife, fisheries and humans who have call the
Arctic home for generations.
Even after every vote has been cast, the fight for the
Green New Deal will be far from over.