Hill Heat

Business meeting page

Nominations of:

• Dr. Jose Emilio Esteban, of California, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Food Safety, United States Department of Agriculture
• Vincent Garfield Logan, of New York, to be a Member of the Farm Credit Administration Board
• Alexis Taylor, of Iowa, to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, United States Department of Agriculture

Tuesday Morning Action outside the Capitol with Our Revolution in coalition with Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Third Act, Our Future WV, For All, and WV Coalition to End the Filibuster. We’ll be gathering at 1st and Maryland Avenue NE on the the Capitol side of 1st St.

Bill McKibben and representatives of front-line communities in West Virgina and western Virginia will be speaking against Joe Manchin’s Dirty Deal and the Mountain Valley Pipeline and how we can STOP it!

RSVP

World Bank President David Malpass refused to acknowledge the climate crisis is here and it’s manmade – dodging the question and saying he’s “not a scientist.”

Activists will set up a stage in front of the World Bank HQ in Washington DC and read the entire IPCC report over megaphones pointed at the building, with banners and placards calling for his ouster.

WHO: Activists from The Climate Reality Project, Friends of the Earth US, Glasgow Actions Team, front line communities in West Virginia, Bill McKibben, and many, many, many more (there’s a lot to read!)

WHAT: The Climate Science is Settled: Protest to Fire Malpass

WHERE: Community Park outside World Bank headquarters

WHEN: Tuesday, September 27, 8:30 AM ET

Please join the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center virtually, on Monday, September 26, from 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET for a discussion on the importance and role of a national green bank in accelerating an equitable transition to a clean energy economy.

Register

One of the many notable components of the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the authorization of $27 billion to establish the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. A national green bank would have a mandate to finance clean energy and environmental justice projects in every state. Through the bank, clean energy entrepreneurs would leverage funding to advance clean energy initiatives and infrastructure in their communities, while creating cleaner air and good, local jobs. The bank would support projects where the problem is not only the cost of financing, but also the availability of financing.

Low-income communities spend three times more of their income on energy costs compared to non-low-income households. The national green bank would help correct this imbalance and help ensure an equitable transition to clean energy in all communities. It would provide billions of dollars of low interest,100 percent up front financing and other forms of financial support to reduce the burden of energy costs by helping to ensure that low-income households and communities have the funding to install clean energy projects while lowering their energy costs.

Distributing the IRA funding through a national green bank would have many advantages. The national green bank could establish national standards for loans, develop credit enhancement programs, and provide expertise and funding to state and local green banks and Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) on renewable energy projects. A national green bank could raise additional funds to those provided in the IRA and through interest on and repayment of loans.

During this panel discussion, experts will discuss opportunities for the Biden Administration to successfully build a national green bank and unlock investment to support an equitable and just clean energy future.

Keynote remarks by

• Senator Chris van Hollen, Maryland

A conversation with

• Will Barber III, Director of Climate and Environmental Justice, The Climate Reality Project; Chief Consultant of Environmental Justice and Equity, Coalition for Green Capital

• Bryan Garcia, President & CEO, Connecticut Green Bank
• Reed Hundt, Founder & CEO, Coalition for Green Capital
• Cathie Mahon, President & CEO, Inclusiv

Moderated by

• Ken Berlin, Senior Fellow, Global Energy Center, Atlantic Council

The Committee on Natural Resources Office of Insular Affairs will hold a hybrid oversight hearing on “PROMESA and LUMA Energy’s Contract.” Scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET, in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building and via Cisco Webex, the hearing has been postponed because of the catastrophic damage from Hurricane Fiona.

The hearing will feature testimony from key stakeholders regarding the implementation of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) and discuss H.R. 7409 – TRUST for Puerto Rico Act to dissolve the Oversight Board. The hearing will also examine LUMA Energy’s contract to manage, operate, and rebuild Puerto Rico’s electric power transmission and distribution system.

Witnesses:

Panel I: PROMESA and H.R. 7409

• Pedro Pierluisi, Governor of Puerto Rico
• José Luis Dalmau, President, Puerto Rico Senate
• Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, Speaker, Puerto Rico House of Representatives
• David A. Skeel Jr, Chair, Financial Oversight and Management Board
• Jessica E. Méndez-Colberg, Attorney, Bufete Emmanuelli, C.S.P.
• Cecille Blondet, Executive Director, Espacios Abiertos
• Maryln Goyco-García, Puerto Rico Campaign Coordinator, Center for Popular Democracy

Panel II: LUMA Energy’s Contract

• Fermín Fontanés, Executive Director, Puerto Rico Public-Private Partnerships Authority
• Josué Colón, Executive Director, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority
• Edison Avilés-Deliz, Chair, Puerto Rico Energy Bureau
• Wayne Stensby, President & CEO, LUMA Energy Corporation
• Ruth Santiago, Attorney & Environmental Policy Expert
• Ingrid Vila Biaggi, President, CAMBIO

The purpose of the hearing is to examine opportunities and challenges in deploying innovative battery and non-battery technologies for energy storage.

The Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance will hold a hearing entitled, “State of Emergency: Examining the Impact of Growing Wildfire Risk on the Insurance Market” on September 22 at 9:00 am in room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building and on the Webex platform.

Memorandum

Legislation

• H.R. 8483, the “Wildfire Insurance Coverage Study Act of 2022” (Rep. Waters) would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct studies assessing the danger that wildfires increasingly pose to communities and how the market for homeowners’ insurance is responding to this growing threat.

Witnesses:

• Matthew Auer, Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia
• Amy Bach, Executive Director, United Policyholders
• Ricardo Lara, California Insurance Commissioner
• Roy Wright, President & CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety
• Rex Frazier, President, Personal Insurance Federation of California

The purpose of this hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

• S.J. Res.57, A joint resolution redesignating the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery as the “Arlington House National Historic Site”;
• S. 305, to establish the Springfield Race Riot National Monument in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes;
• S. 1211, to establish the Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture National Historical Park in Collinsville, Illinois, Monroe, Madison, and St. Clair Counties, Illinois, and St. Louis City County, Missouri, and for other purposes;
• S. 3447, to authorize the National Service Animals Monument Corporation to establish a commemorative work in the District of Columbia and its environs, and for other purposes;
• S. 3579, to authorize the Embassy of France in Washington, DC, to establish a commemorative work in the District of Columbia and its environs to honor the extraordinary contributions of Jean Monnet to restoring peace between European nations and establishing the European Union, and for other purposes;
• S. 3873, to designate the outdoor amphitheater at the Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, Virginia, as the “Rick Boucher Amphitheater”;
• S. 4122, to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Housatonic River in the State of Connecticut as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and for other purposes;
• S. 4168, to amend title 54, United States Code, to reauthorize the National Park Foundation;
• S. 4222, to establish the St. Croix National Heritage Area, and for other purposes;
• S. 4371, to establish the César E. Chávez and the Farmworker Movement National Historical Park in the States of California and Arizona, and for other purposes;
• S. 4377 / H.R. 4380, to designate the El Paso Community Healing Garden National Memorial, and for other purposes;
• S. 4464/H.R. 1908, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating certain land as the Kaena Point National Heritage Area, and for other purposes;
• S. 4693, to amend the National Trails System Act to include national discovery trails and designate the American Discovery Trail, and for other purposes;
• S. 4784, to modify the boundary of the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in the State of Maine, to improve public access to the National Monument, and for other purposes.

Hearing page

Witnesses

• Nicole Majeski, Secretary, Delaware Department of Transportation
• Regina Romero, Mayor, City of Tucson
• Jimmy Wriston, Secretary, West Virginia Department of Transportation
• Jim Tymon, Executive Director, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

Hearing page

• Craig Fugate, Former Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency
• David Gadis, CEO and General Manager, DC Water
• Abre’ Conner, Director, Environmental and Climate Justice, NAACP