Willliam J. Renick, Nominee to be Member of the Board of Directors,
Tennessee Valley Authority
Adam Wade White, Nominee to be Member of the Board of Directors,
Tennessee Valley Authority
Joe H. Ritch, Nominee to be Member of the Board of Directors,
Tennessee Valley Authority
Bill
Renick
is serving as the chair of the Commission on the Future of Northeast
Mississippi. Until last summer, the 68-year-old Renick served as
director of the workforce division for the Northeast Mississippi-based
Three Rivers Planning and Development District. Renick was elected to
the Ashland Board of Aldermen at age 18 and later served as mayor. He
also served on the Benton County Board of Supervisors and in the state
Senate. Renick was chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs in the 1990s
and later as chief of staff for Gov. Ronnie Musgrove. Renick also was a
hospital administrator.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recommended Kentucky’s Lyon County
Judge-Executive Adam Wade
White.
In 2013, White helped rally support for the Freedom to Fish Act, which
was renewed in 2018 and signed by both Presidents Barack Obama and
Donald Trump. This came about as a response to learning about the
proposed closing of fishing below 10 dams on the Cumberland River, which
White knew would devastate the local economy. In 2018, White began what
many refer to as the “War on Carp,” when he focused his efforts on
removing Asian Carp that were having a negative impact on Kentucky Lake
and Lake Barkley, both natural resources and tourist draws.
Previously nominated by former President Barack Obama, Huntsville lawyer
Joe
Ritch
served on the TVA board from 2013 to 2017,
including a four-year tenure as board chair. He was the first Alabamian
to serve as TVA board chair.
Use of federal procurement to advance national clean energy goals and
accelerate innovation has had limited success in the past. The Biden
administration seeks to break this pattern with an ambitious “buy clean”
program. For its effort to succeed, the plan must be well-aligned with
agency missions, funded adequately, and fix perverse budget and
procurement rules.
Join
ITIF
for an expert panel discussion about a new
report
by ITIF board member and former
DOD and GSA
sustainability leader Dorothy Robyn.
Vote on the nomination of Douglas J. McKalip, of the District of
Columbia, to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United
States Trade Representative.
S.1475,
Livestock Regulatory Protection Act of 2021, to prohibit the
Environmental Protection Agency from issuing permits under the Clean
Air Act for any carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, water vapor, or
methane emissions resulting from biological processes associated with
livestock production (Thune)
S.2421,
Smoke Planning and Research Act of 2021 requires the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to research and mitigate the impacts of smoke
emissions from wildland fires (Merkley)
S.2661,
Smoke-Ready Communities Act of 2021 establishes a grant program for
supporting local communities in detecting, preparing for,
communicating about, or mitigating the environmental and public health
impacts of wildfire smoke (Merkley)
S.2736,
RPM Act of 2021 authorizes the modification
of a vehicle’s air emission controls for vehicles that are not legal
for operation on a street or highway and are used solely for
competition, and prohibits the EPA from
creating or authorizing a database of vehicle registration information
that is required to be consulted at the point of manufacture, sale,
installation, or use of parts or components (Burr)
Witnesses:
Panel 1
John Thune, United States Senator, South Dakota
Panel 2
Dr. Cassandra Moseley, Vice Provost for Academic Operations and
Strategy; Research Professor, Institute for a Sustainable Environment;
Senior Policy Advisor, Ecosystem Workforce Program, The University of
Oregon
John Walke, Director, Clean Air Project, Climate and Clean Energy
Program, National Resources Defense Council
Antron Brown, Company Owner, Professional Driver, AB Motorsports
Incorporated, National Hot Rod Association
Scott VanderWal, Vice President, American Farm Bureau Federation
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is dangerous to people and the environment,
and will lock in reliance on fossil fuels for decades to come.
The International Energy Agency has concluded that there must be no new
oil, gas or coal development if the world is to reach net zero by 2050.
On September 6th at 7 pm (ET), Climate Action Now will host a free
action
party
with four extraordinary activists battling the Mountain Valley Pipeline
(MVP) and Senator Manchin’s side deal to accelerate new fossil fuel
infrastructure.
Our featured guests will brief us on what’s at stake and guide us
through concrete actions we can take to help stop the
MVP and side deal during the party with the
free Climate Action Now app.
Why September 6th? The timing is critical. First, activists will
assemble at Congressional offices on Sept. 8 in Washington D.D. to lobby
against the MVP and we want them to walk into
offices that have already heard from a LOT of
people opposing the project. Also, rumor has it that the “Manchin
side-deal” will be voted on by the end of September as part of the
budget package. So, we need to quickly ramp up our efforts to stop it.
About Our Featured Guests
Crystal Cavalier-Keck is the co-founder of Seven Directions of Service
with her husband. She is a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the
Saponi Nation in Burlington, NC and Chair of the Environmental Justice
Committee for the NAACP.
Russell Chisholm serves as Mountain Valley Watch Coordinator for the
Protect Our Water, Heritage Rights (POWHR) coalition in the campaign
to stop Mountain Valley Pipeline and dangerous fossil fuel expansion
through Virginia and West Virginia. The Mountain Valley Watch project
documents and reports potential violations of environmental law from
pipeline construction.
Jessica Sims is the Appalachian Voices Virginia Field Coordinator.
Born and raised in Central Virginia. Jessica is has worked extensively
with Chesapeake Climate Action Network and the Sierra Club Virginia
Chapter on their pipeline campaigns.
Jonathan Sokolow is an attorney and activist in Reston, Virginia who
served as a Staff Attorney with the Legal Aid Society of the City of
New York, General Counsel to the Vermont State Employees Union. and
Senior Assistant General Counsel to the United Mine Workers of America
Health and Retirement Funds.
About Our Co-Hosts
Justin J. Pearson is a leader of Memphis Community Against Pollution
and co-founder of Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP) which
is a Black-led environmental justice organization that successfully
defeated a multi-billion dollar company’s crude oil pipeline project.
Tim Guinee, President of Climate Action Now, has been a veteran in
numerous climate campaigns around the country, most notably as the
Legislative Coordinator for the New York Climate Reality Chapters
Coalition. Former Vice President Al Gore awarded Tim the Alfredo
Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award for this work on the climate crisis.
On Thursday, August 25, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. ET, Rep. Ro Khanna, Chairman
of the Subcommittee on Environment, and Subcommittee Vice Chair Rep.
Rashida Tlaib will hold a field
hearing
in Detroit, Michigan to examine the gaps in current laws and regulations
that leave frontline communities vulnerable to pollution, and the policy
changes necessary to safeguard public health and the environment. The
hearing will focus on the reality of living in “sacrifice zones”—areas
where Americans feel their lives are being sacrificed for the profits of
corporate polluters.
Countless Americans live in environmental justice communities where
current air and water pollution permitting schemes fail to protect
residents from the cumulative health and environmental impacts of
concentrated industrial pollution. These sacrifice zones are
disproportionately found in low-income communities and communities of
color.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) permitting processes under
the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts currently fail to consider these
cumulative impacts on health and the environment. Advocates and
legislators alike have called for mandatory consideration of cumulative
impacts in all permitting and for EPA
standards that would require the rejection of applications that would
cause harm to communities.
In addition, when those permits are violated, enforcement can be slow
and lack transparency and public input. Legislators must strengthen the
tools available to regulators in order to more meaningfully hold
polluters accountable to their permits and better deter future
violations.
This hearing will be an opportunity for Members to examine reforms that
are necessary to protect frontline communities from pollution and
prevent corporate polluters from incorporating permit violation
penalties into their bottom lines as the cost of doing business.
Experts from RFF, Energy Innovation, the
REPEAT Project, and Rhodium Group discuss new
analyses
that project the bill’s potential impacts on US households and
economy-wide emissions reductions.
On July 27, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senator Joe
Manchin (D-WV) released a new deal for a reconciliation package, the
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The proposal includes $369 billion for
new climate and energy investments over the next decade. What does the
broad package mean for US climate ambitions—and Americans’ pocketbooks?
Modeling experts from Resources for the Future (RFF), Energy Innovation,
Princeton University’s REPEAT Project, and
Rhodium Group have examined the legislation’s climate and energy
provisions and projected their effects on US emissions reductions and
costs for US retail electricity consumers. Join us on Wednesday, August
10, for an RFF Live webinar featuring these
experts as they talk about their analysis, key provisions in the
legislation, and their work to inform the conversation surrounding this
landmark proposal.
Speakers
Jesse Jenkins, Princeton University REPEAT
Project
John Larsen, Rhodium Group
Robbie Orvis, Energy Innovation
Kevin Rennert, Resources for the Future
Karen Palmer, Resources for the Future (Moderator)
Jennifer Michael, Resources for the Future (Introductory Remarks)
The U.S. Senate is poised to pass the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a
major landmark for American efforts to address the climate crisis that
would be the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history and
get the country within striking distance of its 2030 emissions reduction
target.
If passed, the package of climate and clean energy investments will have
a tremendous impact on innovation and cost reductions for a whole set of
clean-energy solutions. The investments would help accelerate the U.S.
transition to a clean energy economy and offer Americans a plethora of
savings, health and economic benefits. The bill will also be critical in
making progress toward the nation’s climate goal and show other
countries that the U.S. is still a leader in the fight against climate
change.
Join us for a press
briefing
on August 8, 20222 ET to help distill some of the major takeaways of the
IRA, what it means for the U.S. ambitions to
achieve its 2030 emissions reduction target, and how it may affect the
global climate policy debate in the months ahead.
At 10:00 am PDT on Wednesday, August 3, 2022,
the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will hold a hybrid field
hearing
titled “Building Climate-Resilient Coastal Communities: Perspectives
from Oregon’s State, Local, and Tribal Partners.” The hearing will be
held in Patriot Hall, Clatsop Community College, 1650 Lexington Avenue,
Astoria, OR 97103.
For the general public wishing to attend the hearing, please enter
through the Patriot Hall front entrance and proceed to the gymnasium,
which will open at 9 am for attendees.
Witnesses:
Dr. Elaine Placido, Executive Director, Lower Columbia Estuary
Partnership. Placido is a veteran of the Coast Guard and has
twenty-plus years of local government and non-profit experience prior
to working with the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.
Dr. Francis Chan, Director, Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem
and Resource Studies; Associate Professor, Department of Integrative
Biology, Oregon State University. Chan leads the Institute’s research
in conservation, protection, and restoration of marine resources;
marine ecosystems; ocean acoustics; and ocean, coastal, and seafloor
processes.
Tyler Bell, Director, Westervelt Ecological Services’ Rocky Mountain
Region. Bell primarily oversees the organization’s restoration site
planning and development, agency relations and coordination, business
development, and management of regional staff.
Aja DeCoteau, Executive Director, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish
Commission. DeCoteau leads the organization’s strategic direction and
team of more than 130 employees in four locations in Oregon,
Washington and Idaho to put fish back in the rivers, protect treaty
fishing rights, share salmon culture, and provide direct services to
tribal fishers along the Columbia River.
H.R.3508,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 39 West Main Street, in Honeoye Falls, New York, as the
CW4 Christian J. Koch Memorial Post Office.
H.R.5271,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 2245 Rosa L Parks Boulevard in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Thelma
Harper Post Office Building.
H.R.5809,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 1801 Town and Country Drive in Norco, California, as the Lance
Corporal Kareem Nikoui Memorial Post Office Building.
H.R.5900,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 2016 East 1st Street in Los Angeles, California, as the Marine
Corps Reserve PVT Jacob Cruz Post Office.
H.R.6386,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 450 West Schaumburg Road in Schaumburg, Illinois, as the Veterans
of Iraq and Afghanistan Memorial Post Office Building.
H.R.6614,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 4744 Grand River Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, as the Rosa Louise
McCauley Parks Post Office Building.
H.R.6825,
Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act of 2022
H.R.700,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 303 East Mississippi Avenue in Elwood, Illinois, as the Lawrence M.
Larry Walsh Sr. Post Office.
H.R.7077,
Empowering the U.S. Fire Administration Act
H.R.91,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 810 South Pendleton Street in Easley, South Carolina, as the
Private First Class Barrett Lyle Austin Post Office Building.
H.R.92,
To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located
at 110 Johnson Street in Pickens, South Carolina, as the Specialist
Four Charles Johnson Post Office.
S.4611,
A bill to improve services for trafficking victims by establishing, in
Homeland Security Investigations, the Investigators Maintain
Purposeful Awareness to Combat Trafficking Trauma Program and the
Victim Assistance Program.
S.4623,
A bill to advance Government innovation through leading-edge
procurement capability, and for other purposes.
The Global Catastrophic Risk Management Act, cosponsored by Rob Portman
(R-Ohio) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), would establish an interagency
committee on global catastrophic risk, including “severe global
pandemics, nuclear war, asteroid and comet impacts, supervolcanoes,
sudden and severe changes to the climate, and intentional or accidental
threats arising from the use and development of emerging technologies.”
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
