The Week in Climate Hearings: Capital Smaze

A smoggy haze descended over the nation’s capital on Saturday, June 14th, Flag Day, as acrid smoke from fossil-fueled wildfires in New Jersey blew in and mixed with tropical humidity from overheated oceans. Originally planned as an awkwardly kid-friendly propaganda exercise on the National Mall, the celebration of the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary ballooned into a ruinously expensive but sparsely attended military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, under the direction of Trump loyalists, with lead sponsors Lockheed Martin, Oracle, Coinbase, Palantir, Miracle-Gro, and Phorm, the Ultimate Fighting Drink.¹

Small packs of Trump enthusiasts, fearful of imagined dangers of urban crime and immigrant street gangs, warily visited the civic temples of America managed by institutions under illegal assault by their idol, from the Smithsonian National Zoo to the Kennedy Center.

With downtown Washington D.C. surrounded by 18 miles of costly temporary fencing, the MAGA faithful straggled and struggled through a few chokepoints to watch (or not) Trump’s long-desired military parade, while thousands of local residents protested on street corners and celebrated across the river in Anacostia.

Across the nation, millions upon millions of Americans gathered in cities, towns, and hamlets, to defend the American flag from the Trump coup with the demand of “No Kings.”

During the day, the news spread of the political assassination of one of the nation’s strongest climate hawks, Minnesota state Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Minn.). As Adam Anton writes, Hortman “helped push through bills that established Minnesota’s clean electricity standard, a green bank, subsidies for clean tech and electric vehicles, greater environmental justice provisions in permitting and a suite of other climate policies.” As Jordan Haedtler wrote in 2023 for the U.S. Climate Politics Almanac, “the creation of a progressive green bank is just the latest example of Minnesota exerting national leadership.” “She will be remembered as a giant in our state’s history,” The DFL Environmental Caucus wrote.

Her assault-rifle-toting assassin, an evangelical conservative who also killed her husband and attempted to gun down state Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Minn.) and his wife while disguised as a police officer, was captured late Sunday night, after Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) spent the weekend spreading mocking conspiracy theories about the killer on X.

The House of Representatives is in recess this week, and the U.S. Senate has a short week, as the chamber will go into recess for Juneteenth. The Senate Republicans are drafting their version of the Big Brutal Bill, each committee chair slowly publishing their preferred text.

Last week, the debased Energy and Natural Resources chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) released his committee text, which requires the Department of the Interior and US Forest Service to offer up millions of acres of public land across 11 western states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) for sale.”

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), who removed a much smaller land-selloff from the House version, “remains a hard no on any bill that includes the large-scale sale of public lands.”

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is leading a campaign against the public-lands selloff.

On Monday night, Finance chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) released his text on the Big Brutal Bill’s tax provisions, including even harsher cuts to Medicaid than the House plan. His proposal phases out the Inflation Reduction Act clean-energy incentives, such as those for electric vehicles and solar farms, slightly slower than the House version.

And we now reach the week in climate hearings.

On Wednesday at 10 am, Senate committees hold two hearings of climate interest. The contemptible Mike Lee (R-Utah) chairs a hearing on the budget request for the U.S. Department of Energy for Fiscal Year 2026 with Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) holds a subcommittee hearing on modernizing America’s rail network with industry lobbyists and Clarence Anthony, CEO of the National League of Cities.

Climate activists continue to organize and fight against attacks on climate justice in the capital.

On Monday, D.C. Councillor Charles Allen joined crowds of activists for a Green Budget Day of Action, to protest Mayor Muriel Bowser’s plans to slash the Department of Energy and Environment’s 2026 funds by one quarter, to cut funding for lead pipe replacement, cutting Anacostia River cleanup by $2 million, limiting the stormwater management budget, and cutting programs to help poor residents pay their utility bills.

On Tuesday at 5:30 pm, climate activists are testifying at a D.C Public Service Commission hearing against Washington Gas’s PROJECTPipes plan, a multi-billion-dollar, forty-year plan to replace the region’s fracked-gas network, paid for by higher rates on utility consumers.

On Wednesday night, Sunrise holds the launch for End the Oligarchy, Save Our Futures, a new campaign to make Big Oil pay for the rising costs of climate disasters. Speakers in the national broadcast include Sunrise head Aru Shiney-Ajay, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Sunrise LA’s Nico Gardner Serna, Fridays For Future NYC’s Keanu Arpels-Josiah, and actress and climate activist Hannah Einbinder. Sunrise DC is hosting a watch party near Capitol Hill.

1  The lead corporate sponsors of the festival on the Mall were General Dynamics and USAA. Other corporate sponsors included Bell Textron, Wal-Mart, GOVX, Leonardo DRS, RTX Corporation, Leidos, Armed Forces Mutual, Boeing, First Command, General Electric Aerospace, T-Mobile, King George, InterContinental Hotels Group and the NFL. Further corporate sponsors of parade organizer America250, the quasi-non-profit established last decade to organize celebrations of the American semiquincentennial but taken over by Trump loyalists upon his election, include Chrysler, Dodge, FedEx, Jeep, Ram, Coca-Cola, Walmart, BNY, Goldman Sachs, and Exiger.