The Week in Climate Hearings: Maintaining Democracy in the Face of Climate Disasters

On Wednesday, there are two excellent climate actions. At 11:30 am, the Climate Action Campaign and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are holding a Capitol Hill press conference on the Trump EPA’s rollback of climate rules. And at noon, Climate Cabinet holds an online meeting on their look at key local 2026 elections.

Tuesday, September 16

At 9:30 am, New Mexico Democrats Sen. Martin Heinrich, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández and Rep. Melanie Stansbury will join twenty governors and leaders from the Santa Ana, Picuris, Cochiti, Zia, Tesuque, Acoma, Santo Domingo, and Laguna Pueblos to host a press conference on permanently protecting Chaco Canyon.

At 10 am, the DOGE subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on geoengineering and weather modification, with industry-backed climate deniers Roger Pielke Jr., now with the American Enterprise Institute, and Chris Martz, a young Marc Morano acolyte. Both will express reasonable skepticism of solar geoengineering mixed with a cartoonish rejection of the threat of industrial global warming. They both reject the chemtrail conspiracy theories, for what it’s worth.

At 10:15 am, the House Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee is holding a hearing on Alaska's natural resources, with most witnesses calling for the elimination of limits on the oil, gas, and timber industries. The Democratic witnesses are Alaska energy and environmental historian Philip Wight and Port Heiden tribal elder John Christensen Jr.

Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee is holding a hearing on Republican legislation to weaken or dismantle appliance and building energy and water-use standards from prefab homes to urinals, as well as Rep. Paul Tonko’s (D-N.Y.) legislation to reauthorize the Weatherization Assistance Program. The Republican witnesses include American Gas Association lobbyist George Lowe, appliance industry lobbyist Jennifer Cleary, and the Department of Energy acting general counsel Jeff Novak, a longtime corporate lawyer. The Democratic witness is energy-efficiency lobbyist Andrew deLaski.

At 11 am, the House Agriculture Committee examines the state of the specialty crop industry, with farmers and agricultural scientists, to be followed at 2 pm by a hearing on the threat of “agroterrorism”.

At 1 pm, the House Oversight federal law enforcement subcommittee is investigating how EPA enforcement of the Clean Air Act has “gone rogue”—not under President Donald Trump, as one might expect, but under the Biden administration. Specifically, the witnesses will discuss the prosecution of companies which sell “defeat devices” to permit automotive vehicles to bypass Clean Air Act rules. Kory Willis, one seller of such devices, will testify how much his community was harmed by hurricanes in 2020, without recognizing the influence of greenhouse pollution on those storms. The recently retired executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, Eric Schaeffer, is the Democratic witness.

At 2 pm, the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee will look at five Republican bills to weaken the Clean Air Act, with Southern Environmental Law Center expert Keri Powell facing off against Williams pipeline lobbyist Mark Gebbia and Republican state officials.

Also at 2 pm, the House Administration elections subcommittee reviews maintaining election operations in the face of climate disasters such as the fossil-fueled Hurricanes Laura and Helene with Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, former North Carolina elections chief Karen Brinson Bell, and North Carolina attorney Stacy Eggers IV, of Eggers, Eggers, Eggers, & Eggers.

Wednesday, September 17

At 9 am, the House Foreign Affairs Committee marks up Department of State reauthorization bills including H.R. 5300, to guide U.S. foreign policy, and H.R. 5248, which places U.S. global environmental policy under an Under Secretary for Economic Affairs.

At 9:15 am, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes on 32 Department of State nominations, including Jacob Helberg, a senior advisor to Palantir CEO Alex Karp, to be Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.

At 9:50 am, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee votes on the nomination of Jeffery Hall to be EPA Assistant Administrator, Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. Hall is a neo-fascist oil industry lawyer. After the vote, the committee holds a hearing for oversight of the US Army Corps of Engineers.`

At 10 am, the Senate Commerce Committee votes on the nomination of Neil Jacobs to be NOAA Administrator for the second time, because ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) allowed a voice vote in support of the Sharpiegate administrator in August. The committee then holds a hearing with Trump nominees including Ethan Klein to be Associate Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Graham to stay on the National Transportation Safety Board, and Joyce Meyer to be Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs, where she will oversee the U.S. Census Bureau.

Also at 10 am, the House Natural Resources Committee marks up mining deregulatory legislation and other bills.

Thursday, September 18

At 10 am, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission holds its monthly open meeting.

Meanwhile, the House Science energy subcommittee holds a hearing on fusion power with Oak Ridge director of fusion energy Troy Carter, University of Wisconsin fusion scientist Stephanie Diem, and industry representatives.

At the same time, the House Agriculture rural development subcommittee looks at
USDA rural development programs, and the House Natural Resources federal lands subcommittee interviews witnesses on bipartisan federal lands legislation.