Hill Heat

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on energy efficiency resource standards, including S. 548, a bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal energy efficiency resource standard for retail electricity and natural gas distributors, and for other purposes.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)

Panel 2

• Patricia Hoffman, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy, U.S. Department of Energy
• Paul A. Centolella, Commissioner, Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Mr. David Manning, Executive Vice President of External Affairs, National Grid
• Thomas Skains, Chairman, American Gas Association
• Steven Nadel, Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficent Economy
• Rich Wells, Vice President of Energy, The Dow Chemical Company

04/22/2009 at 10:00AM

U.S. EPA is poised to create a new national greenhouse gas registry. Data collected by the registry is expected to serve as a foundation for any national effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

EPA is required by law to finalize the rule establishing the registry by June. The agency submitted a revised proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget last month, replacing a draft released last fall by the outgoing Bush administration.

Witnesses

• Dr. Alexander MacDonald, Director, Earth Systems Research Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Dina Kruger, Director, Climate Change Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs, Environmental Protection Agency
• Dr. Beverly Law, Professor, Global Change Forest Science, Oregon State University; Science Chair of the AmeriFlux Network
• Dr. Patrick Gallagher, Deputy Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology
• Michael Freilich, Director, Earth Science Division, NASA
• Richard Birdsey, Project Leader, Climate, Fire, and Carbon Cycle Science, USDA Forest Service; Chair of the Carbon Cycle Scientific Steering Group

04/22/2009 at 10:00AM

Witnesses Panel 1

• Todd Stern, Special Envoy for Climate Change, Department of State

Panel 2

• Helene Gayle, President and Chief Executive Officer, CARE
• Ned Helme, President, Center for Clean Air Policy
• Paul Camuti, President and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Corporate Research

04/22/2009 at 09:30AM

Panel I: Administration

• Lisa Jackson, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
• Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy
• Ray La Hood, Secretary of Transportation

Panel II: USCAP

Panel III: The Economic Benefits of Green Jobs

04/22/2009 at 09:30AM

Member statements.

04/21/2009 at 03:00PM

Nominations include:

• Ms. Sherburne B. Abbott of Texas, to be Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the Executive Office of the President
• Mr. Peter Appel to be the Administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation
• Ms. April S. Boyd to be Assistant Secretary for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce
• Mr. Dana G. Gresham to be the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Government Affairs, at the U.S. Department of Transportation
• Mr. Cameron Kerry to be General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce
• Mr. Roy W. Kienitz to be the Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation
• Mr. Robert Rivkin to be the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Transportation
• Mr. Joseph C. Szabo to be Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration

04/21/2009 at 02:30PM

On April 21, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) will release the results of a two-year study that found that the United States can significantly reduce carbon emissions and lower energy bills by implementing an emissions cap in conjunction with a suite of energy and transportation policies. UCS’s recommended approach is similar to the one proposed recently by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in a draft discussion climate bill.

The UCS analysis, “Climate 2030: A National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy,” uses a modified version of the Department of Energy’s National Energy Modeling System (NEMS) and projects how UCS recommendations would reduce emissions and lower energy costs over the next 20 years. The analysis also provides projections of net business savings on energy and net consumer savings by household and region.

WHO

• Kevin Knobloch, UCS president
• Rachel Cleetus, UCS climate economist
• Steve Clemmer, UCS Clean Energy Program research director
• David Friedman, UCS Clean Vehicles Program research director

For the visual portion of UCS’s “webinar,” go to: cc.readytalk.com/r/i6a7q64a5vtw (please log in early to avoid any bottlenecks)

For the audio portion, call: 866-740-1260, access code: 3018025

04/21/2009 at 11:00AM

“This committee hearing will examine how the administration plans to help prepare workers for these jobs and what the missing policy and resource tools to support that agenda are,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, in a statement.

A bill introduced earlier this month by Murray and Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) would authorize grants for partnerships among two-year colleges, industry and organized labor in an effort to develop customized regional work forces.

Witnesses

Panel I

• Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor

Panel II

• Lee D. Lambert, President, Shoreline Community College
• Phillip C.L. Lou, Former Student in the Shoreline Community College Solar Design and Installation Program
• Dean Allen, Chief Executive Officer, McKinstry Company
• Mark H. Ayers, President, Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• Joan Evans, Director, Wyoming Department of Workforce Services

04/21/2009 at 10:30AM

Witnesses

Panel 1

• J. Charles Fox, Director, Chesapeake Bay Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Panel 2

• Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-Virginia 11th), Former Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
• Will Baker, President and CEO, Chesapeake Bay Foundation
• Robert Hutchison, Partner, Hutchison Brothers (Grain Operation)

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a report last week that found phosphorus loads, water quality, dissolved oxygen and toxin levels in the bay had either remained static or worsened over the last year.

And in a report issued last month, the Chesapeake Bay Program found that the continued flow of nutrients and sediment from sewage treatment plants, farms, air pollution and urban and suburban runoff have prevented the bay from progressing toward a full recovery. The Bay Program consists of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia; the Chesapeake Bay Commission, a federal, state and local body; U.S. EPA; and citizen advisory groups.

04/20/2009 at 10:00AM

Speaker: Steven J. Milloy

Host: Becky Norton Dunlop, Vice President, External Relations, The Heritage Foundation

Behind the smiley-face rhetoric of “sustainability” and “conservation” – that warm and fuzzy public image that the environmental movement has cultivated for itself – resides a dark agenda. In Green Hell, Steve Milloy examines how the Greens aim to regulate your behavior, downsize your lifestyle, and invade the most intimate aspects of your personal life. He reflects on the authoritarian impulse underlying the Green crusade. Whether they’re demanding that you turn down your thermostat, stop driving your car, or engage in some other senseless act of self-denial, he argues that the Greens are envisioning a grim future for you marked by endless privation.

With apocalyptic predictions of environmental doom, the Green movement has gained influence throughout American society – from schools and local planning boards to the biggest corporations in the country. And their plans are much more ambitious than you think, says Milloy. What the Greens really seek, with increasing success, is to dictate the very parameters of your daily life – where you can live, what transportation you can use, what you can eat, and even how many children you can have.

Steven J. Milloy is Founder and Publisher of JunkScience.com, a columnist for FoxNews.com, the Co-Founder of the Free Enterprise Action Fund, an Adjunct Scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Co-Director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research. An outspoken defender of the free market against the junk science and false claims disseminated by the Greens, his columns and op-ed pieces have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Financial Times, and Los Angeles Times.

Location: The Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium

04/13/2009 at 12:00PM