THE COMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING,
AND URBAN AFFAIRS will meet in
OPEN SESSION, HYBRID
FORMAT to conduct a
hearing
entitled, “Disaster Recovery Assistance – Authorization of the Community
Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery Program.”
Rescheduled from December 9th.
Witnesses:
Michael A. Sprayberry, Senior Advisor For Emergency Management,
Hagerty Consulting
Matt Mayer, President, Opportunity Ohio
Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the Chair of the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene an executive
session at
10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 15, 2021, to consider the following
measures and nominations:
The World Bank has not committed to aligning its financing with limiting
warming to 1.5C. And the Financial Times
reports that the Trump-appointed president of the World Bank, David
Malpass, pushed for the joint statement by development banks at the
UN COP26 climate summit to be shortened and
weakened. The Bank is governed by a 25-member Board of Directors, of
which Dr. Kugler is nominated to be the U.S. member, replacing the
acting U.S. director Lea
Bouzis.
Dr. Adriana Debora Kugler, of Maryland, to be United States Executive
Director of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,
the lending arm of the World Bank, for a term of two years
Ramin Toloui, of Iowa, to be an Assistant Secretary of State (Economic
and Business Affairs)
Marc R. Stanley, of Texas, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Argentine
Republic
Rashad Hussain, of Virginia, to be Ambassador at Large for
International Religious Freedom
Thomas Barrett, of Wisconsin, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Grand Duchy of
Luxembourg
Erik D. Ramanathan, of Massachusetts, to be Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kingdom of
Sweden
Scott Miller, of Colorado, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Swiss
Confederation, and to serve concurrently and without additional
compensation as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
United States of America to the Principality of Liechtenstein
8. Ms. Jamie L. Harpootlian, of South Carolina, to be Ambassador
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the
Republic of Slovenia
The fight continues to Stop Line 3! As part of the national Stop
Line 3 day of
action,
on December 14th, the anniversary of large-scale direct action to Stop
Line 3, we are renewing our calls to the US Army Corps of Engineers to
order a federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) with a Vigil for
Water
at the US Army Corps of Engineers HQ, 441 G St NW.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation has recently announced
plans
to “commit more than 50 percent of our program funding to
climate-related investments over the next five years.” The Corporation
has financed several electricity modernization
projects around the world.
During the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26), financial
institutions and governments all over the world made unprecedented
pledges and commitments to reduce financed emissions and begin to
address climate-related financial risk. Now that the dust has settled,
the real work of implementing these commitments begins. What will this
mean for the Biden administration? Will President Joe Biden’s financial
regulators endeavor to reign in banks and other financial institutions
that continue to fund fossil fuels and other high-carbon-emitting
industries or leave the U.S. economy and financial system at risk of
another crisis?
Please join the Center for American Progress and Sierra
Club for the
launch of important new research revealing the enormous size of carbon
emissions financed by the largest banks and asset managers in the United
States and a discussion of actions the Biden administration can take to
curtail this problem before the carbon bubble bursts.
Speakers:
Caroline A. Crenshaw, Commissioner, U.S. Securities and Exchange
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)
In conversation:
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
John Podesta, Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, Center for
American Progress
Research Presentation:
Ben Cushing, Campaign Director for Fossil-Free Finance, Sierra Club
Join our virtual public
forum
for a discussion on ABC News’ climate
coverage. We will dive into what is needed from media organizations at
the 11th hour of this climate emergency, and how we can push
organizations to report on climate with more accountability, with our
featured panelists:
David Fenton, founder of Fenton: The Social Change Agency (one of the
country’s leading progressive communications firms)
Hanna E. Morris, PhD, researcher of media, culture, and the climate
crisis and current postdoctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for
Communication, University of Pennsylvania
Ben Franta, PhD, JD, researcher of climate accountability and current
PhD student at Stanford
Amy Westervelt, founder and executive producer of the Critical
Frequency podcast network and the Drilled podcast, and
co-host/co-author of the Hot Take podcast and newsletter
We have also invited executives and producers from
ABC News and Disney (ABC News’ parent company)
to our speaker line-up. We hope that they can join us and present their
perspectives and plans on climate coverage.
Fossil fuel companies learned over 50 years ago that burning fossil
fuels would lead to climate change, and were soon predicting “globally
catastrophic effects.” Company executives recognized that addressing
climate change could require burning fewer fossil fuels — making climate
action a threat to industry profits. In order to protect their bottom
line, oil and gas companies masterminded a decades-long, multi-million
dollar climate denial, disinformation, and deception campaign that
stopped climate policy in its tracks. Join leading experts in the field
of climate accountability for a deep dive into the documentation of Big
Oil’s deception (from past to present). Learn how the fossil fuel
industry fits into the larger picture of modern-day corporate deception
and how local communities (and U.S. Congress) are using this evidence to
hold the industry accountable.
The
hearing
will focus on the potential of clean energy to make electricity bills
and transportation costs cheaper for families across America. The
hearing will also focus on how investments in the Build Back Better Act
will help families avoid the volatility of natural gas and oil prices,
make long-term progress to reduce energy prices across the board, and
help businesses achieve their clean energy goals.
Witnesses:
Miranda Ballentine, Chief Executive Officer, Clean Energy Buyers
Association (CEBA). Ballentine leads a group of nearly 300 energy
customers seeking to procure clean energy across the United States,
including service providers, businesses, and non-profits. Previously,
Ballentine served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for
Installations, Environment, & Energy during the Obama Administration,
as well as Director of Sustainability for Global Renewable Energy for
Walmart.
Uday Varadarajan, Principal, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI); Precourt
Energy Scholar, Sustainable Finance Initiative at Stanford University.
At RMI, Varadarajan is a Principal in the
Carbon-Free Electricity Practice, where his work focuses on how to use
cutting edge data and financial, policy, and regulatory analysis to
help drive a just transition to clean energy. Previously, Uday served
as a program examiner in the Office of Management and Budget, where he
helped oversee the $2 billion budget for Department of Energy energy
efficiency and renewable energy programs.
Amy Myers Jaffe, Research Professor and Managing Director of the
Climate Policy Lab, The Fletcher School at Tufts University. Jaffe is
a leading expert on global energy policy, energy and sustainability,
and geopolitical risk. During her career, she has led climate, energy,
and sustainability programs at the Council on Foreign Relations, the
University of California, Davis, and Columbia University, and she
advised the Office of the Chief Investment Officer of the University
California, Regents. She has also taught energy policy, business and
sustainability courses at Rice University, UC Davis, and Yale
University.
Sean O’Donnell, Inspector General & Acting Inspector General,
Environmental Protection Agency & U.S. Department of Defense
Michael J. Roark, Deputy Inspector General for Evaluations, U.S.
Department of Defense
Richard G. Kidd, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy
Resilience, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Sustainment, U.S.
Department of Defense
Laura Macaluso, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Force Safety and
Occupational Health, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Readiness,
U.S. Department of Defense
Panel II
Anthony M. Spaniola, Co-Chair, Great Lakes
PFAS Action Network
Andrea Amico, Co-Founder, Testing for Peace
Mark Johnson, Deputy Director for Business and Regulatory Affairs,
Environmental Protection Agency, State of Ohio
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
