The Week in Climate Hearings: State of Disunion

Monday, February 23

At 4 pm, the House Rules Committee tees up yet more legislation intended to cripple clean-energy and energy-efficiency policies. The Home Appliance Protection and Affordability Act (H.R. 4626), formerly the “Don’t Mess With My Home Appliances Act,” would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to cripple the Department of Energy’s ability to set energy efficiency standards, including a ban on factoring in the social cost of carbon pollution. Troublingly, the Energy & Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) argued that energy conservation is important not because of global warming and other pollution but because wasting electricity would “threaten our ability to compete with China in the artificial intelligence race.” The Homeowner Energy Freedom Act (H.R. 4758) “repeals three programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act: the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program, the State-Based Home Energy Efficiency Contractor Training Grants, and Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code Adoption. The bill also rescinds all unobligated funds for the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program and Assistance for Latest and Zero Building Energy Code adoption.”

Tuesday, February 24

At 10 am, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee is holding a hearing assessing policy options to accelerate the buildout of AI data centers, with Paige Lambermont, of the corporate-backed climate-denier Competitive Enterprise Institute, Google “sustainability” lobbyist Marsden Hanna, and clean-energy industrial policy expert Dr. Eric Masanet of UC Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, at 10:30 AM, the House Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee receives testimony on radical legislation to fast-track mining projects, particularly for minerals needed for the data-center boom. Many of the bills are bipartisan. Public Citizen’s Chelsea Hodgkins will testify against mining executives and investors.

At 10:15 am, the House Natural Resources Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Subcommittee holds yet another hearing promoting the committee chair’s logging-industry boondoggle, the Fix Our Forest Act, this time on the provisions for expanding electric transmission rights of way in federal forests; that is, allowing wide zones of clear-cut timbering along power lines. Ecologist Carolyn Mahan of Penn State and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid executive director Christina Hayes will testify alongsize utility representatives.

Also at 10:15 am, the House Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee holds a hearing on challenges and opportunities for safe, reliable, and affordable drinking water, amid the Trump administration’s efforts to eliminate federal drinking water funds. Witnesses include Nicole Murley, the acting EPA Inspector General, NRDC advocate Erik Olson, and water utility representatives Eric Hill of Alabama and Lindsey Rechtin of Kentucky.

Wednesday, February 25

At 9:30 am, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee interviews the following Trump nominees: former Rep. Steve Pearce (R-N.M.) to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management, fracking engineer Kyle Haustveit to be Under Secretary of Energy for Infrastructure, and Trump loyalist David LaCerte for reappointment to FERC.

Pearce is loathed not only by environmentalists but also his fellow Republicans. “Throughout his 14-year career in Congress and later as the chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Pearce opposed public ownership of lands and advocated for selling off the very resources the BLM was created to steward,” blasted Zachary Fort, president of the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association. “Pearce’s disdain for our public lands extends to the agencies that manage them. As a member of Congress, he encouraged county governments in his district to violate federal laws on Forest Service lands inside their borders. After leaving Congress, as chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Pearce unsuccessfully lobbied the Interior Department to drastically shrink the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, despite it being an economic boon to Doña Ana County.”

Haustveit, a former petroleum engineer for Devon Energy, is assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy. He is Trump’s nominee to replace the ousted Wells Griffith, another fossil-fuel enthusiast who lasted only a few months on the job.

LaCerte is a Project 2025 contributor who worked for the Trump White House in the Office of Personnel Management before confirmation to FERC on a party-line vote in October 2025.

At 10 am, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee reviews the Water Resources Development Act of 2026 and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects, programs, and priorities with Adam R. Telle, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, and Lt. Gen. William H. Graham Jr., the head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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