The Week in Climate Hearings: Despoil the Earth Days

Before the look ahead, a brief look back:

Last Thursday, Senate Republicans abused the Congressional Review Act to open the Minnesota Boundary Waters to sulfide mining by a vote of 50 to 49. Last year, they similarly overrode the Senate parliamentarian to abuse the CRA to kill California’s Clean Cars program. That same day, House Republicans—assisted by a handful of polluter-allied Democrats—passed the FENCES Act (H. R. 6409) to weaken Clean Air Act limits on air pollution and the RED Tape Act (H. R. 6398) to hobble the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate construction projects.

On Friday, House Science ranking member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) released a report revealing how NASA illegally impounded taxpayer funds at the behest of the Trump White House to kill scientific projects funded by Congress.

DC Climate Week

It’s now DC Climate Week. The Department of Energy Alumni Network is holding several events (including kickball on Earth Day). The U.S. Climate Politics Almanac is featuring a tiny sampling of the many forums, workshops, happy hours, and outdoor excursions, which include today’s opening ceremonies.

As an example, here are some of the diverse events taking place on Tuesday, April 21:

• At 8:30 am, Climate Challenges, Community Answers: Lessons from D.C., coffee and panel discussions featuring Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and local D.C. climate activists at the George Washington University School of Media & Public Affairs.

• Starting at 9 am, the Climate & Environmental Data Day at the National Academies of Sciences is kicked off by climate scientist Amanda Staudt, now the director of the American Meteorological Society. The all-day affair includes a panel at 11:30 am with some of the great scientific leaders thrown out of government by the Trump regime: Steve Volz, Former Assistant Administrator, NOAA Satellite and Information Service; Bill Hohenstein, Former Director, USDA Office of Energy and Environmental Policy; Christa Peters-Lidard, Former Director, Sciences and Exploration Directorate, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; and Tim Stryker, Former Director, U.S. Group on Earth Observations, OSTP; Former Chief, Outreach and Collaboration Branch, USGS National Land Imaging Program. The day concludes with a happy hour at Penn Social.

• At 10:30 am, Stop The Money Pipeline and Third Act are organizing We the People - Not Data Centers, a tour and protest against the Data Center World Conference also happening this week in D.C.

• In an awkward confluence, data-center industrialists from Google, DTE Energy, and Thor Equities are meeting at the same time as part of the DC Climate Week Leadership Forum at Martin Luther King Library. That all-day forum also features many climate leaders and policy experts, including Jerome Foster II, Katie McGinty, and Richard Caperton.

• At 6 pm, We Power DC hosts The Missing Piece of the Climate Movement: A Panel on Public Power with Sandeep Vaheesan, the author of Democracy in Power (as previously interviewed by Hill Heat) at the American Institute of Architects.

As a further taste, here are some lovely afternoon events to meet good climate people. At 5:30 pm on Wednesday, the Community Choice Energy Alliance is hosting an open Congressional Networking Reception at 2280 Rayburn. At 5:30 pm on Thursday, the Center for Clean Air Policy hosts Networking for Climate Action at 700 K St NW. And at 6:30 pm on Friday, solarpunk dc teams up with DC Bike Party for a Sound Mesh Hackathon Ride starting at Dupont Circle.

Again, there’s much more happening every day in DC Climate Week.

Congress and the Cabinet

Republicans in Congress and in the Trump administration are celebrating Climate Week and Earth Day in their own way, with a celebration of scientific denial, global violence, and unrestrained pillaging of the planet’s bounty.

Trump’s Cabinet members continue their appearances before Congress to promote Russ Vought’s fiscal year 2027 budget. All of the below have appearances on Earth Day; many are testifying on other days as well.

• Climate denier and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum before House appropriators on Monday afternoon and Senate appropriators Wednesday morning

• Climate denier, fracking executive, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday morning and Senate appropriators Wednesday afternoon

• Climate denier, centimillionaire, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent before Senate appropriators Wednesday morning

• Climate denier, billionaire, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick before Senate appropriators Wednesday morning and House appropriators Thursday morning

• Climate denier, Christofascist, and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins before Senate appropriators Wednesday afternoon

The climate denier and scandal-ridden Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer will not be appearing before Congress this week, however, as she has just resigned.

House appropriators are moving quickly to their final mark up of the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Financial Services-General Government titles on Tuesday and Wednesday, then holding a joint subcommittee markup of the FY27 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Bill and the FY27 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Bill on Thursday morning at 8 am.

Monday, April 20

At 4 pm, the House Rules Committee began setting up the House GOP’s anti-Earth Day floor votes: bills to gut the Endangered Species Act, deregulate geothermal projects, fast-track communications infrastructure, and roll back energy conservation and fossil-fuel phaseouts in federal buildings.

Also on Monday afternoon, the Senate Armed Services’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee received testimony on the Department of Energy’s atomic energy defense activities and Department of Defense nuclear weapons programs in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2027 and the Future Years Defense Program. The White House is requesting a 35 percent increase in the (unclassified) nuclear weapons budget to $21 billion.

Tuesday, April 21

At 10:30 am, the House Natural Resources Committee holds a markup of bills to fast-track geothermal and mining projects, combat illegal fishing, and other matters.

Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22

Unusual for its lack of mean spirit, at 10 am, the House Natural Resources federal lands subcommittee is holding a hearing on implementing the EXPLORE Act to provide more inclusive access at our National Parks to the disabled, such as those using wheelchairs.

At the same time, the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee interviews the commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on their budget request, in the wake of the Trump White House’s effective campaign to dismantle the agency’s longheld independence.

Meanwhile, the House Natural Resources Indian and insular affairs subcommittee holds a hearing on Tribal natural resource development—Republicans want to focus this Earth Day hearing on fossil fuels and mining, but witness Talia Martin of Tribal Energy Alternatives will offer a more sustainable perspective.

At 2 pm, the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee has invited industry executives to testify on domestic pollution control laws and metals and minerals recycling and processing. Resources for the Future environmental economist Beia Spiller will also testify.