Hill Heat

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to a briefing on policies and practices to address wildfires. Billions of dollars are spent fighting wildfires every year, and the cascading economic, health, and societal impacts of wildfires are enormous. Compounding these challenges, wildfires also release greenhouse gases and harmful aerosols into the atmosphere. Over the last century, battling wildfires after they have started has been the main approach to address this threat. Yet, with record-setting fire seasons happening almost every year, more proactive and preventative steps are needed.

Panelists will discuss policies and practices that would allow the United States to reduce the overall risk of wildfires, including how innovations in community-centered wildfire protection can improve resilience for humans and ecosystems.

Speakers

• Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.)
• Carly Phillips, Western States Climate Team Fellow, Union of Concerned Scientists
• Kimiko Barrett, Wildfire Research & Policy Lead, Headwaters Economics
• Margo Robbins, Executive Director, Cultural Fire Management Council
• Steve Bowen, Managing Director and Head of Catastrophe Insight, Aon

A live webcast will be streamed at 01:00 PM EDT.

RSVP

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Dr. Gopinath “Gopi” Munisamy, Distinguished Professor, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia
• Karla Thompson, Vice President, JET Farms Georgia and Integrity Farms
• Sheryl Meshke, Co-President and CEO, Associated Milk Producers Inc., New Ulm, MN
• Neal Fisher, Administrator, North Dakota Wheat Commission, Mandan, ND

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Linda Reinstein, President/CEO & Co-Founder, Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
• Danny Whu M.D., Chief Medical Officer, International Association of Fire Fighters
• David Lee Boone, General Manager, Copiah Water Association
• Robert J. Simmon, Vice President for Chemical Products & Technology Division, American Chemistry Council

The purpose of the hearing is to examine the President’s budget request for the U.S. Forest Service for Fiscal Year 2023.

Witness:

• Randy Moore, Chief, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture

The FY 2023 President’s Budget for the USDA Forest Service discretionary appropriations totals $9 billion, including $2.21 billion for the wildfire suppression cap adjustment (in the Wildfire Suppression Operations Reserve Fund). In addition to discretionary appropriations, the request includes $743 million in mandatory funding for Permanent and Trust funds. To address the wildfire crisis we are facing, the FY 2023 request focuses on risk-based wildland fire management; compensation for wildland firefighters; tackling the climate crisis; improving infrastructure, providing economic relief and supporting jobs; and advancing racial equity. To improve the conditions we are seeing on the ground, it will take use of the best available science; hard work shoulder to shoulder with partners; use of all the tools in our toolbox; and a robust workforce.

Climate change is causing historic droughts in the West and placing water supplies and other natural resources at risk. Carbon sequestration is vital for combating climate change. Forests take up vast quantities of carbon in trees and soils—in fact, forests are America’s largest terrestrial carbon sink. Our forests, plus harvested wood products and urban forests, offset almost 15 percent of the Nation’s total carbon dioxide emissions and almost 12 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. The National Forest System alone stores almost 14 billion metric tons of carbon, or about a quarter of the Nation’s carbon storage in forests. Each year, the National Forest System adds about 31 million metric tons of carbon of net gain.

Many ecosystems nationwide are degrading and losing habitat for our native plants and wildlife. Climate change is altering environmental conditions nationwide. Drought has contributed to outbreaks of insects and disease that have killed tens of millions of acres of forest across the West. Changing environmental conditions have lengthened fire seasons into fire years and worsened wildfires across the West. At the same time our forests are becoming more overgrown and unhealthy. Expanding development into the wildland urban interface puts more homes into fire-prone landscapes. One American home in three is now in the wildland/urban interface, increasing wildfire risk to these communities, because 80-90 percent of all wildfires are human-caused.

Hearing page

Hearing video

Hearing audio

• Amos Hochstein, Presidential Coordinator, U.S. Department of State

Make no mistake, though, we have been working in lockstep with Europe to respond through decisive actions. Our close cooperation started in the fall of 2021, when we began working to divert LNG cargoes to Europe. We continued these efforts through the winter to help Europe avoid winter blackouts and shortages. And the United States continues to play its part in supporting European energy security. In the first four months of 2022, EU and UK imports of LNG from the United States have more than tripled when compared with 2021. U.S. companies on average shipped 7.3 billion cubic feet of LNG per day to the region and accounted for 49 percent of the region’s total LNG imports. The United States is now the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe.

On Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 9:30 A.M. ET, in 1324 Longworth HOB and via Cisco Webex, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a hybrid legislative hearing and will consider the following legislation:

• H.R. 2073 (Rep. John Yarmuth), Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act or the ACHE Act
• H.R. 2505 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Coal Cleanup Taxpayer Protection Act
• H.R. 4799 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Coal Royalty Fairness and Communities Investment Act of 2021
• H.R. 7283 (Rep. Matt Cartwright), Safeguarding Treatment for the Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines Act or the STREAM Act
• H.R. __ (Rep. Conor Lamb), Modern Mine Reclamation Legislation RENEW Act

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Dr. Joseph Janzen, Assistant Professor, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Robert Craven, Extension Economist and Associate Director, Center for Farm Financial Management, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
• Dr. Ronald L. Rainey, Assistant Vice President and Professor / Director, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture / Southern Risk Management Education Center, University of Arkansas
• Dr. Joe Outlaw, Professor and Extension Economist and Co-Director, Agricultural and Food Policy Center, Texas A&M University

The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hybrid hearing titled “Turning the Tide for Ocean Climate Action: Unleashing the Climate Benefits of Our Blue Planet” on Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. ET. The hearing will take place in Room 210 Cannon House Office Building and via Zoom video conferencing.

This hearing will examine the role the ocean plays in the climate crisis and the need to develop and invest in ocean-based climate solutions, both at home and abroad, to build resilient ecosystems and communities.

Witnesses:

• Dr. Richard W. Spinrad, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since June 2021, Dr. Spinrad has been responsible for the strategic direction and oversight of NOAA, including its mission to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts, as well as helping conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. He previously served as NOAA’s Chief Scientist under President Obama and led NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and National Ocean Service.
• Monica Medina, Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State. Medina and her team provide leadership to conserve and protect the global environment and ocean. Prior to this role, Assistant Secretary Medina was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service; a former Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere; General Counsel of NOAA; and a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

Hearing page

Placeholder text with proposed budget:

• H.R. 7900

The $773 billion budget request includes $56.5 billion for air power platforms and systems; more than $40.8 billion for sea power, to include nine more battle force ships, and nearly $12.6 billion to modernize Army and Marine Corps fighting vehicles; more than $130.1 billion for research and development; and more than $3 billion to address the effects of climate change, bolstering our installation resiliency and adaptation to climate challenges.

The FY 2023 DoD Budget request of $773.0 billion is a $30.7 billion, or 4.1% increase, from the FY 2022 enacted amount.

Hearing page

Opening statement by John Garamendi

Continuing the work we began in previous years, the Readiness mark addresses vulnerabilities in installation resiliency and energy resiliency, both in response to climate change and in ensuring that our forces can accomplish their missions even in the event of power disruption, either natural or man-made.

Committee mark

The committee commends the Department of Defense for pursuing policies to increase energy resilience, and to reduce the carbon emissions of installation and operational energy to reduce climate risks. However, the committee is concerned that the Department may not be fully considering all carbon-free energy technologies, nor is it fully assessing the ability of carbon-free emitting energy technologies to meet the reliability, resilience, and performance requirements for installations and operations, especially for action strategies that do not maximize the achievement of both mission objectives and climate goals.

Accordingly, the committee directs the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the House Committee on Armed Services not later than June 1, 2023. The report shall include at a minimum the following:

(1) an evaluation of the reliability, resilience, and performance characteristics of all existing and emerging carbon-free energy technologies, including grid-scale and micro-advanced nuclear energy;

(2) assesses whether carbon-free energy technologies are currently capable, if deployed, of meeting the reliability, resilience, and performance requirements for all agency energy uses at domestic installations for critical missions; and

(3) an assessment of emerging carbon-free energy technologies in research and development that could enhance energy resilience at domestic installations.

The committee commends the military departments on the use of energy savings performance contracts to improve energy resilience, decrease energy costs, and increase readiness at military installations. The committee notes that installation commanders and base personnel identify energy saving initiatives on their energy conservation measures list and that these projects could in turn become part of an energy savings performance contract. The committee is concerned that without a mechanism for sharing the contents of the energy conservation measures list with energy service companies, the Department of Defense is not able to utilize energy savings performance contracts to the fullest extent possible.

Therefore, the committee directs the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment to initiate a study and submit a report to the House Committee on Armed Services by January 1, 2023, on potential methods of securely sharing installation energy conservation measures requirements lists with existing Department energy services companies.