The Week in Climate Hearings: Summer Solstice

Congress is heading into its pre-election summer schedule, spending as little time in Washington, D.C. as possible. The House of Representatives is taking the week off, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation) jetting down to Mar-a-Lago to hang out with felon Donald Trump and former Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) leading a bipartisan delegation to Israel. With Juneteenth this Wednesday, the Senate isn’t in session much this week either; there will be a few hearings of interest on Tuesday.

The carbon loading of the atmosphere isn’t taking any time off however, and India, Egypt, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, and the Caribbean are broiling in record-shattering fossil-fueled heat. Killer heat is building this week over the United States from the Midwest to the Northeast to mark the summer solstice.

Before a look at tomorrow’s hearings, a few congratulations are in order.

Congratulations to the Wall Street Journal opinion editors, who have now published 100 hit pieces on Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan. Congratulations to Lunchables, the perfect lead and phthalate delivery system, now part of the official school lunch system. Congratulations to the entire private equity industry, who have dodged taxes on more than $1 trillion in profits since 2000, creating over 100 new billionaires. And congratulations to one of those private equity billionaires, KKR’s Henry Kravis, whose response to the Last Generation activists who branded him a “climate criminal” for his financing of oil and gas expansion was to wonder who’s going to put up the money to end the use of fossil fuels.

And a sincere congratulations to Mi’kmaq elders Cheryl and April Maloney, who led the successful campaign against AltaGas’s plains for a fracked-gas pipeline through indigenous lands in Canada. The Maloneys are coming to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to teach how they won the fight against AltaGas, the parent company of Washington Gas.

Tuesday, June 18

At 10 am, the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee chaired by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) is holding a hearing on unlocking Department of Transportation financing for more transit-oriented housing development. The witnesses are Brookings fellow Tracy Hadden Loh, Adhi Nagraj from urban real-estate developer McCormack Baron Salazar, and Morteza Farajian, the executive director of the Build America Bureau at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In the afternoon at 2:30 pm, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) chairs a Foreign Relations subcommittee hearing on the FY 2025 budget request for the Middle East and North Africa with State Near East official Barbara Leaf and USAID Middle East official Jeanne Pryor.

At 2:45 pm, the Senate Rules and Administration Committee conducts oversight of the Smithsonian Institution with Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III.

Thanks to the multitalented Ari Rabin-Havt for sharing these striking photographs of Alaska’s cliffside birds.