The Week in Climate Hearings: Forests Under Fire

The coming super El Niño, thanks to the unchecked burning of billions of tons of fossil fuels, is a “climate monster,” warns David Wallace-Wells. But let’s burn that bridge when we get to it, and stay focused on the week ahead.

Nebraska and West Virginia voters go to the polls today. The key race for climate hawks is Nebraska’s second, a Democratic-leaning district currently held by the retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).¹  Prairie populist John Cavanaugh is the favored candidate of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and is an unabashed climate hawk, with a JD and masters in environmental policy.

Another great candidate for Congress, Sunrise Movement co-founder Will Lawrence, is running for Michigan’s 7th as a homegrown pro-peace, anti-data-center progressive. He visited D.C. yesterday for a fundraiser with local climate hawks.

At 2 pm on Thursday, the John Muir Project is holding an online webinar on the hidden “Fix Our Forests Act” loophole that would end enforcement of environmental laws on national forests.

On Monday afternoon, the U.S. Senate moved 49 Trump nominees closer to final confirmation by a 46-45 party-line vote. Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) missed the vote. The nominees include the Steve Pearce, a notorious opponent of federal lands, as Director of the Bureau of Land Management, January 6 participant Darin Smith as U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming, and Project 2025 co-author David LaCerte for a full five-year term on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Tuesday, May 12

Today’s scheduled markup of the ICE-CBP-ballroom budget reconciliation package in the Senate Judiciary Committee has been postponed, likely over concerns over the $1 billion slush fund for Trump’s East Wing ballroom bunker, but not the $31 billion for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or the $3.5 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection or the $2.5 billion in undirected funds for the Department of Homeland Security.

At 3 pm, the Senate Agriculture committee meets to receive testimony on the fertilizer industry, which relies on fracked gas and thus competes with the export market for liquefied natural gas. Fertilizer prices have surged since the beginning of Trump’s Iran war, as have prices for farm diesel.

Wednesday, May 13

Congress has a very busy Wednesday planned, with the House back in session after an extended break.

At 10 am, the House Foreign Affairs Committee marks up the DOMINANCE Act for mining alliances and other bills. H.R. 7037, the Developing Overseas Mineral Investments and New Allied Networks for Critical Energies Act, is an explicit effort to build neocolonial alliances to control mineral supplies from foreign countries in competition with China. Democratic co-sponsors of this bipartisan bill, led by Ami Bera (Calif.), include Greg Stanton (Ariz.), Johnny Olszewski (Md.), Joaquin Castro (Texas), Eugene Vindman (Va.), Steven Horsford (Nev.), Dina Titus (Nev.), Ed Case (Hawaii), and Jimmy Panetta (Calif.).

At 10:15 am, the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee conducts a hearing on state regulatory oversight of electric infrastructure permitting in the context of rapidly rising electricity prices and predictions that data centers will consume nearly 20 percent of all U.S. electricity by 2030. Former FERC chair Mark Christie will testify against giving FERC sweeping backstop siting authority for mega-transmission lines, and Northern California Power Authority general manager Randy Howard will argue for maintaining discretion in siting decisions. Transmission lobbyists and private utility executives will testify in favor of mandatory, deregulated, and expensive construction.

The other hearings of interest involve the fiscal year 2027 budget. The House Appropriations Committee is marking up the Fiscal Year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Bill in a marathon session beginning at 11 am. The planned House GOP package involves slashing billions of dollars from the federal science budget, including:

• A 20 percent cut to the National Science Foundation

• A 14 percent cut to the NASA Science Mission Directorate

• A 14 percent cut to the National Institute of Standards and Technology

• An 11 percent cut to NOAA’s operations, research, and facilities budget

Additionally, the day is full of agency heads testifying on their budget requests:

• At 9:30 am, U.S. Forest Service chief Tom Schultz defends a proposed 75 percent cut in his budget to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

• At 10 am, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum defends Interior’s slash-and-burn budget with the House Natural Resources Committee

• Also at 10 am, the members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission defend an eight-percent reduction to the NRC budget while accelerating approvals of experimental nuclear plants to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee

• At 10:30 am, Administrator Lee Zeldin proposes cutting the Environmental Protection Agency budget in half to Senate appropriators

Thursday, May 14

At 10 am, the House Natural Resources Committee marks up several bills, including a quadriennal review of longtime wildfire trends (H.R. 3924), a bill to extend and expedite oil and gas drilling permitting (H.R. 7831), and legislation from Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Adam Gray (D-Calif.) in support of a reckless expansion of hydropower projects (H.R. 7487), which would allow hydropower projects on all Bureau of Reclamation waterways and move control of permitting from FERC to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Friday, May 15

At 9 am, a House Appropriations subcommittee holds the markup of the Fiscal Year 2027 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Bill, which includes the Department of Energy, FERC, NRC, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Tennessee Valley Authority, and other power and water commissions.

1  State Republicans lack the supermajority needed in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature to gerrymander the district to be safely Republican, though Gov. Jim Pillen (R-Neb.) would have been happy to try.