Climate science, policy, politics, and action
On Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 10:00am ET, the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing titled, “Oversight of the Smithsonian: Radical Revisionism at the National Museum of American History.”
The purpose of the hearing is to conduct oversight of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Witnesses:
Business meeting to consider the nominations of
Baldis is the acting Special Counsel for the Office of Special Counsel. He was senior counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee under Republican leadership including Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The previous nominee was the white supremacist Paul Ingrassia.
Wilson is a conservative movement activist, serving as a researcher for Chief Justices Warren Burger and William Rehnquist and as Executive Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University, a right-wing institute financed by conservative foundations and billionaires such as the John M. Olin Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and Steve Forbes.
Woodruff is a professor at a small online law school that is owned by the for-profit distance-learning Baker College and was a lawyer for the Air Force. He was confirmed to the MSPB in October 2025. His father is a prominent conservative legal activist.
Allen is a Republican operative, racist conservative activist, and conservative lawyer with a consistently anti-labor record as head of the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
The nomination hearing for many of these nominees was held on June 17.
Cam Hamilton briefly served as acting FEMA Administrator in 2025.
Crowell and Nash are among the candidates recommended by the D.C. Judicial Nominations Commission for the vacancies on the D.C. Court of Appeals.
De Bono, DiLorenzo, Goodie, Leen, Macey, and Timmer were among the candidates recommended at various points by the D.C. Judicial Nominations Commission for the vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court.
Subcommittee hearing.
Legislation:
Full committee hearing on Trump’s $87.6 billion supplemental funding request for the U.S. military and U.S.D.A.
On July 16, House Budget Committee marked up a $95 billion reconciliation package of $12 billion for USDA, $73 billion for military ($60 billion for armed services and $13 billion for intelligence), and $10 billion for the SAVE America voter suppression bill.
Witnesses
On Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 2:00 p.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
Witnesses:
Panel I (Members of Congress)
Panel II (Administration Witnesses)
Panel III (Outside Experts)
Subcommittee hearing entitled “Measuring What Matters: Science, Standards, and Strategic Competition”.
The subcommittee will “examine how the U.S. can maintain its competitive edge in an ever-growing and rapidly evolving technological landscape, while also assessing how China is pursuing global control through coordinated national strategies and policies to strengthen American leadership.”
Witnesses
On Tuesday, July 21, 2026, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources will hold a legislative hearing on the following bills:
Witnesses:
Panel I (Members of Congress)
Panel II (Administration Witness)
Panel III (Outside Experts)
Full committee markup.
Legislation:
The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a Full Committee markup on Monday, July 20, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. (ET) in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building, and subsequent days (beginning Tuesday at 8 am) as necessary, to consider the following items:
Bills:
A. H.R. 9340, Ratepayer Protection Act (Reps. Evans (CO) and Castor)
This legislation would amend Section 111(d) of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) to require each state regulatory authority to consider establishing a large-load standard to provide that a rate charged, or related agreement entered into, by an electric utility for providing electric service to a large-load customer shall recover the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade necessary to serve the load of such customer and to provide for financial assurances to cover such upgrades. The legislation would define large-load customers as non-residential electric consumers requesting electric energy for one or more facilities at a site or campus with peak demand of 100 megawatts or more.
B. H.R. 9332, Load Forecasting Enhancement Act (Reps. Balderson and Menendez)
This legislation would direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to hold regional joint boards with state public utility commissions to study and identify best practices for electric load forecasting that enhance the reliability and affordability of electric service to customers, and to develop best practices related to load forecasting. The legislation requires a FERC report to Congress with recommendations from the joint boards and requires each state regulatory authority to consider incorporating the report’s recommendations regarding load forecasting. Further, the legislation would amend the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) to include in state energy conservation plans procedures and programs to improve accuracy, oversight, and transparency to stakeholders of load forecasting by electric utilities.
C. H.R. 9339, Affordable Innovation for the Grid Act (Reps. Harshbarger and Mullin)
This legislation would direct the Department of Energy, in consultation with FERC and NERC, to study and report to Congress on opportunities to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and other high-performance computing technologies to enhance the capacity, reliable operation, and operational efficiency of the bulk power systems, and provide recommendations to facilitate adoption of such technologies with respect to grid operation. The bill requires the Department of Energy to consider AI applications for interconnection processes as part of their study.
D. H.R. 9335, Advanced Transmission Technology to Reduce Rates Act (Rep. Goldman (TX))
This legislation would amend EPCA to require the Secretary of Energy to establish and maintain a publicly available clearinghouse that identifies advanced transmission technologies (ATT), analyses, and financial assistance related to the technologies, and would require the Secretary to provide technical assistance to utilities, transmission organizations, and states seeking such assistance concerning ATT. The legislation would enable states to include programs to facilitate deployment of ATT in state energy conservation plans. The legislation would provide that any DOE financial assistance for ATT would not be considered a major federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act. The legislation would require the Secretary to establish best practices for utilities to reduce the risk of wildfire ignition from the bulk power system. This legislation was amended during the Energy Subcommittee markup on June 24, 2026, to clarify provisions related to NEPA under section 2.
E. H.R. 6633, High-Capacity Grid Act (Rep. Fedorchak)
This legislation would direct FERC to establish a best-available transmission conductor standard and to apply the standard to new FERC jurisdictional transmission lines and upgrades, modifications, or replacements. The legislation would establish that a utility is precluded from recovering any costs for conductors, except for conductors meeting the standard, unless the utility can demonstrate that use of such conductors is not prudent and the associated costs are not just and reasonable. This legislation was amended during the Energy Subcommittee markup on June 24, 2026, to establish, in consultation with DOE, a Best Available Transmission Conductor Class and to streamline the process for FERC to implement requirements for public utilities associated with the establishment of such class of conductors.
F. H.R. 6529, Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act (Rep. Landsman)
This legislation would require FERC to hold a Commissioner-led technical conference on strategies and rate structures for protecting residential and small commercial ratepayers from increased costs associated with large loads. Participants would include DOE, utilities, transmission providers, state regulators, consumer advocates, and large loads. FERC would report to Congress on recommendations and best practices resulting from the conference. This legislation was amended during the Energy Subcommittee markup on June 24, 2026, to clarify that the authorities of FERC under the proposed technical conference are focused on federal authorities.
G. H.R. 9338, Pipeline Safety Authorization Act of 2026 (Rep. Weber)
This legislation would reauthorize PHMSA’s pipeline safety program for 5 years and update policies and procedures to modernize PHMSA and improve safety.
Sec. 1 Short Title. This section provides that the Act may be cited as the “Pipeline Safety Authorization Act of 2026.”
Sec. 2 Definitions. This section would modify the definition of “transporting gas” to clarify the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) regulatory authorities with respect to transfer and in-plant piping.
Sec. 3. Minimum Safety Standards. This section would require PHMSA to consider the “safety and economic benefits within the United States” when conducting cost-benefit analysis for proposed regulations.
Sec. 4. Opportunity for Formal Hearing. This section would provide an opportunity for pipeline operators that have been issued a notice of enforcement from PHMSA to have an onthe-record hearing conducted by an administrative law judge. An operator must prove that compliance with the enforcement action is more than $125,000, or there must be a proposed civil penalty of $125,000 or more to have the opportunity for a formal hearing. The section would also require the Secretary of Transportation to establish protocols for hearings under this section to ensure orderly process and protection of confidential information.
Sec. 5. Special Permit Program. This section would require that any terms placed on safety waivers (special permits) are specific to the pipeline safety regulation being waived and would establish timelines for consideration of special permit applications. The section would also mandate a report to Congress on the status of safety waivers sought under the special permit program and directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to provide a report on PHMSA’s implementation of the provision.
Sec. 6. Strengthening Penalties for Pipeline Safety Violations. This section would strengthen penalties for “damaging, destroying, or impairing the operation of” pipeline facilities or pipeline facilities under construction.
Sec. 7. Authorization Levels. This section would reauthorize PHMSA’s pipeline safety program for five years.
Sec. 8. Pipeline Safety Voluntary Information-Sharing Program. This section would direct PHMSA to establish a voluntary information sharing system to gather, evaluate, and quantify critical pipeline safety data and information to improve safety.
Sec. 9. Excavation Damage Prevention. This section would update PHMSA’s assessment criteria for State Damage Prevention Programs and would describe additional leading practices that state one-call programs should consider implementing to prevent excavation damage to pipelines and other underground utilities.
Sec. 10. Civil Penalties. This section would raise PHMSA’s maximum civil penalty for a violation from $200,000 to $341,200 and raise the maximum civil penalty for a series of violations from $2,000,000 to $3,412,000.
Sec. 11. User Fees. This section would clarify that user fees collected from pipeline operators by PHMSA are to remain in the Pipeline Safety Fund until they are expended and not to be used for other purposes.
H. H.R. 9617, Coordinating and Harnessing America’s Recovery of Minerals (CHARM) Act (Reps. Palmer and Tonko)
This legislation directs the EPA Administrator, in consultation with the heads of other federal agencies, to develop and carry out a National Critical Mineral Recovery Strategy to coordinate federal efforts to recover critical minerals from discarded materials.
I. H.R. 9616, Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI) Act (Reps. Pfluger and Landsman)
This legislation would authorize EPA to establish a program to investigate, evaluate, and support processes, methods, and systems which may be utilized to identify sources of critical materials at contaminated sites as well as recovery of such critical minerals.