The Week in Climate Hearings: Beating the Heat

Vacation’s over: Congress returns to session for three weeks, with the task of keeping the federal government funded, before noping out until after the election. The California, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, and Nevada delegations have left the smoke and heat, the Ohio delegation the crippling drought, the Florida delegation the flooding rains, and the Louisiana delegation—including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation)—is out of the way of Tropical Storm Francine, soon to strengthen to a hurricane thanks to the fossil-fueled heat of the Gulf of Mexico.

Johnson has proposed an unusually long six-month continuing resolution, with a poison-pill amendment that would establish a national ID requirement for voting. Democrats and several Republicans are firmly opposed to the bill, and President Joe Biden has promised a veto, so we can expect Johnson to fold when he hits up against the deadline. The one highlight of Johnson’s proposal is that it would replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, which has run out of money, thanks the the unrelenting rise in fracking-fueled disasters.

Tuesday, September 10

At 10:30 am, the House Natural Resources oversight subcommittee holds a hearing on the Fish and Wildlife Service's Operation Long Tail Liberation, which broke up a multi-million-dollar smuggling ring that was smuggling long-tailed macaques from Cambodia into the United States for the benefit of Big Pharma drug testing. Because this is a Republican-led hearing, the Fish and Wildlife Service is going to be attacked.

At 2 pm, the Natural Resources water, wildlife, and fisheries subcommittee reviews four bills under its jurisdiction, notably Rep. Glenn Grothman’s (R-Wisc.) H. R. 8632 to rescind Interior’s proposed rule protecting the biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

At the same time, the Financial Services oversight committee holds yet another hearing attacking environmental, social, and governance standards, with a special focus on proxy advisory firms.

The viewership is expected to be higher for the night’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and felon Donald Trump, which begins at 9 pm.

Wednesday, September 11

Wednesday’s Republican show hearing on behalf of the fossil-fuel industry is at 10 am: a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on energy policy and inflation will attack the Biden administration with the claim that a “radical rush to green energy polices” has “resulted in high energy costs and crippling inflation.” Witnesses include an American Farm Bureau activist and two representatives from Koch Industries front groups—Patrice Onwuka of the Independent Women’s Forum, founded by the Kochs, and Travis Fisher of the Cato Institute, founded by the Kochs. The Democratic witness is the reliably incisive Trevor Higgins of the Center for American Progress.

Also at 10, the House Natural Resources energy subcommittee reviews three bills attacking the National Environmental Policy Act, including a radical gutting from committee chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.).

Meanwhile, the House Transportation water resources subcommittee holds a hearing entitled “Waters of the United States Implementation Post-Sackett Decision: Experiences and Perspectives.” Last year, the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. E.P.A. decision stripped wetlands protections. environmental officials from Alaska and Colorado will testify alongside American Farm Bureau lobbyist Courtney Briggs and construction-industry representative Vincent Messerly.

At 2:30 pm, the Senate Energy water and power subcommittee will review 15 bills on Western water and power infrastructure as well as legislation on American Samoa self-determination. S. 4242 would extend the Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991 through 2028. At this point it could be renamed the Desertification Relief Act.

Thursday, September 12

At 10 am, the Senate Energy committee reviews the Department of Energy’s role in advanced computing research, which is rooted in nuclear-weapons modeling, but now also includes climate modeling, quantum computing, AI, and self-driving initiatives. Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies Director Helena Fu and Oak Ridge technologist Shaun Gleason will testify from the Department of Energy, joined by Divyansh Kaushik from the center-right Silicon-Valley-backed lobbying group American Policy Ventures, an offshoot of the center-right Silicon-Valley-backed lobbying group Humanity Forward.

Also on Thursday: at 3 pm, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute and World Resources Institute host a Congressional briefing exploring the policy landscape of carbon dioxide removal at 385 Russell and online.

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