Hill Heat

Please join mountain lovers from across the country to:

Celebrate Appalachia

Join citizens in the fight to protect their communities from mountaintop removal mining.

Reception Hosted By:

The Alliance For Appalachia

Appalachian Citizens Law Center * Appalachian Voices * Appalshop * Coal River Mountain Watch * Heartwood * Kentuckians For The Commonwealth * MACED * Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition * Save Our Cumberland Mountains * Sierra Club Environmental Justice Program * Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards * Southwings * West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

With special thanks to:

Alaska Wilderness League, Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Christians for the Mountains, EarthJustice, Environment America, Friends of the Earth, Natural Resource Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network, and the national Sierra Club.

RSVP to J.W. Randolph at (202) 669-3670 or jw@appvoices.org

Witnesses

• The Honorable Ed Schafer, Secretary of Agriculture
• Mr. Chuck Conner, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
• Dr. Joseph Glauber, Chief Economist, Department of Agriculture
• Mr. W. Scott Steele, Budget Officer, Department of Agriculture

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills: S.2259/H.R. 813, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Prado Basin Natural Treatment System Project, to authorize the Secretary to participate in the Lower Chino Dairy Area desalination demonstration and reclamation project, and for other purposes; H.R. 31, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District Wildomar Service Area Recycled Water Distribution Facilities and Alberhill Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation Facility Projects; H.R. 716, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Santa Rosa Urban Water Reuse Plan; H.R. 786, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Los Angeles County Water Supply Augmentation Demonstration Project, and for other purposes; H.R. 1140, to authorize the Secretary, in cooperation with the City of San Juan Capistrano, California, to participate in the design, planning, and construction of an advanced water treatment plant facility and recycled water system, and for other purposes; H.R. 1503, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Avra/Black Wash Reclamation and Riparian Restoration Project; H.R. 1725, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the Rancho California Water District Southern Riverside County Recycled/Non-Potable Distribution Facilities and Demineralization/Desalination Recycled Water Treatment and Reclamation Facility Project; H.R. 1737, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the design, planning, and construction of permanent facilities for the GREAT project to reclaim, reuse, and treat impaired waters in the area of Oxnard, California; and H.R. 2614, to amend the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in certain water projects in California.

Witness

• Mr. Kris Polly , Deputy Commissioner for External & Intergovernmental Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, DOI

Key lawmakers are now promoting California’s energy and global warming policies as a model for the federal government and other States to follow. Thomas Tanton’s talk will review California’s policies and show that they have had significant costs as well as other detrimental effects and are likely to have even higher costs and even worse effects in the future. California’s policies have led to the highest electricity and gasoline prices in the continental U. S. and contributed to the de-industrialization of California.

Mr. Tanton’s talk is based on his new White Paper for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, California Energy Policy: a Cautionary Tale for the Nation. Copies will be available at the event and online at www.cei.org.

Please RSVP by e-mail to Julie Walsh at jwalsh@cei.org. Please give your name and office or organization.

For more information, please call Myron Ebell at (202) 331-2256

The hearing will focus on international fisheries issues, including Regional Fisheries Management Councils (RFMO’s), compliance reporting and enforcement on the high seas.

Witnesses Panel I: Status of Surface Transportation Trust Funds and Impact on Federal Spending

• James S. Simpson, Administrator, Federal Transit Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation
• James D. Ray, Administrator (Acting), Federal Highway Administration, U. S. Department of Transportation
• John F. McCaskie, Chief Engineer, Swank Associated Companies (Transportation Construction Coalition)
• William W. Millar, President, American Public Transportation Association

Panel II: Future Outlook and Budgetary Needs for AMTRAK

• Joseph H. Boardman, Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration
• Donna McLean, Chairman of the Board, National Railroad Passenger Corporation-AMTRAK
• Alexander Kummant, President & CEO, National Railroad Passenger Corporation-AMTRAK
• David Tornquist, Assistant Inspector General, United States Department of Transportation
• Joel M. Parker, International Vice President & Special Assistant to the President, Transportation Communications International Union

Senate briefing on “Climate Change and the Midwest,” a discussion of the impacts of climate change on Midwestern states.

Panelists Include:

• Dr. Donald Wuebbles, Director of the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University of Illinois, who will summarize the potential impacts of global warming on the Midwestern states. Dr. Wuebbles developed the concept of Ozone Depletion Potentials used in the Montreal Protocol and the U.S. Clean Air Act. He contributed to all of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) assessments on climate change, and coauthored both an assessment of the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes region and, more recently, a similar assessment of the U.S. Northeast.
• Dr. Jonathan Pershing, Director of WRI’s Climate, Energy and Pollution Program, who will focus on how proposed federal legislation might be tailored to address Midwest-specific concerns through allowance allocation or complementary policies, including policy options that can mitigate economic impacts of a federal program. Dr. Pershing is active in U.S. and international climate policy design; he serves on the CA Market Advisory Committee, was the facilitator for both the Northeast states’ emissions trading initiative (RGGI) and the Illinois state climate advisory group, is a regular participant in international UN climate negotiations, and was a lead author for the IPCC.
• Doug Scott, Director of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, who will present a summary of the actions taken to date by Midwestern states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Mr. Scott chairs Governor Blagojevich’s Climate Change Advisory Committee.

If you have any questions, please contact Senator Klobuchar’s office or Senator Lugar’s office.

On Wednesday, April 2, 2008, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is holding a hearing titled, “From the Wright Brothers to the Right Solutions: Curbing Soaring Aviation Emissions.” The hearing will take place on April 2, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. in Room 1310 of the Longworth House Office Building. Witnesses will be by invitation only.

At this hearing the Committee will also vote to subpoena documents from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) showing what progress that agency has made in response to Supreme Court decision, Massachusetts v. EPA, which was delivered April 2, 2007.

As Congress examines all causes and impacts of heat-trapping emissions, the Select Committee is assessing aviation’s present contribution to greenhouse gasses and the potential to curb such emissions in the future. Aviation emissions generate 12 percent of U.S. transportation carbon dioxide emissions and three percent of the United States’ total carbon dioxide emissions. The FAA estimates that demand for passenger and cargo aviation in the United States will double or triple by 2025. As the European Union is poised to extend its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to all airlines, it is imperative for Congress to consider how aviation can contribute to or curb heat-trapping emissions through operations, technology and fuel.

Witnesses

• Dan Elwell, FAA Assistant Administrator for Aviation Policy, Planning, and Environment
• Bob Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Tom Windmuller, Senior Vice President, International Air Transport Association
• James May, President and CEO, Air Transport Association

EPA Leaves Behind Wake of Broken Promises, Inaction as Anniversary of Landmark Global Warming Case Approaches

State Officials, Environmental Groups to Discuss Steps to Compel EPA Action

On April 2, 2007, the Supreme Court handed down a watershed decision in the case of Massachusetts v. EPA. Despite promises from EPA Administrator Johnson and even President Bush himself, EPA has willfully chosen to ignore the Supreme Court’s instructions. Indeed, EPA has instead proposed action consistent with the wishes of polluters and other special interests.

The petitioners in Mass v. EPA have repeatedly and publicly warned EPA that continued inaction on the so-called “endangerment finding” and promised regulations for global warming emissions from vehicles would force the petitioners to take steps to compel action. EPA’s brazen refusal to act has left the petitioners no choice but to take the agency back to court to force it to comply with the High Court’s decision.

This press teleconference will review developments over the past year, outline the Bush administration’s broken promises relating to this case, and outline the legal action that the petitioners are being forced to take in order to prevent EPA from continuing to ignore the Supreme Court.

• G. Edmund Brown, Jr., Attorney General of California
• James Milkey, Chief of Environmental Protection, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office
• David Bookbinder, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel
• Joe Mendelson, Legal Director, International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA)

The ICTA brought the original petition that led to this case. James Milkey argued the case before the Supreme Court.

Conference ID: 41865683

Dial-in: (888) 228 – 9795

Contact: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384 (w), 202.679.7570 (m), josh.dorner@sierraclub.org