Hill Heat

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 need for a federal EIS has reached an emergency level. Why an EIS?. Frac-out. Artesian aquifer breach, 28 frac-outs. Rushed construction caused severe, permanent, ongoing environmental damage.

Enbridge has already been fined 50 new coal-fired plants in a time of “code red” climate emergency.

Moreover, Enbridge cannot obtain the required $200 million in “environmental impairment liability” insurance. This is the Canadian pipeline company responsible for the largest inland oil spill in US history. Enbridge pipelines had more than 800 spills in the US and Canada between 1999 and 2010, leaking 6.8 million gallons of oil.

Before the Line 3 emergency becomes catastrophic, we come together on December 14th to call on the Army Corps to order a federal EIS. Please join us.

12/14/2021 at 07:00PM

Hearing to consider the nominations of

• Enoh T. Ebong, of the District of Columbia, to be Director of the Trade and Development Agency
• Oren E. Whyche-Shaw, of Maryland, to be United States Director of the African Development Bank
• Leopoldo Martinez Nucete, of Virginia, to be United States Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank for a term of three years
• Maria Fabiana Jorge, of the District of Columbia, to be United States Alternate Executive Director of the Inter-American Development Bank
• Alice P. Albright, of the District of Columbia, to be Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation
• Michele Taylor, of Georgia, for the rank of Ambassador during her tenure of service as United States Representative to the UN Human Rights Council
• Christopher R. Hill, of Rhode Island, to be Ambassador to Serbia
• Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, to be Ambassador to the Vatican

The USTDA runs the Global Partnership for Climate-Smart Infrastructure. USTDA also supports international fossil-fuel projects.

The African Development Bank is allocating 40 percent of project approvals to climate finance. It also finances fossil-fuel projects.

The Inter-American Development Bank has allocated limited funding in the past to climate finance, and finances both renewable and fossil-fuel projects.

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.

12/14/2021 at 02:30PM

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

RSVP

12/14/2021 at 11:00AM

The climate emergency is here. Has ABC News been reporting like it?

For years, the country’s most-watched TV news outlet stayed mostly silent on climate change. And when it did break its silence, it ran lackluster, incomplete coverage.

However, ABC News recently created a dedicated climate unit and committed to tell a variety of climate stories this November as COP26 got underway. Has it been enough to undo the ignorance and confusion caused by its past silence? Is ABC News now treating the climate crisis like the biggest national and global emergency of our times?

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.

RSVP

12/13/2021 at 07:00PM

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.

RSVP

12/09/2021 at 03:00PM

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.

12/09/2021 at 01:30PM

Hearing link

Witnesses

Panel I

• 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

12/09/2021 at 10:15AM

Hearing page

Witnesses

• Stephen Gardner, President, Amtrak
• David Kim, Secretary, California State Transportation Agency
• Kevin Corbett, President and CEO of New Jersey Transit, Co-Chair, Northeast Corridor Commission
• Julie White, Deputy Secretary for Multimodal Transportation, North Carolina Department of Transportation, Commission Chair, Southeast Corridor Commission
• Donna DeMartino, Managing Director, Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency
• Knox Ross, Mississippi Commissioner and Chair, Southern Rail Commission

12/09/2021 at 10:00AM

On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a legislative hearing to examine S. 2372, The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, introduced by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

12/08/2021 at 10:00AM

During this hearing, the subcommittee will receive testimony on federal, state, and local efforts to address the nation’s brownfields and other contaminated properties, and how the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act accelerates those efforts.

Witnesses

• Lucy Vinis, Mayor, Eugene, OR
• Michael Goldstein, Chairman, Public Policy, Redevelopment Incentives, and Regulatory Partnerships Committee, National Brownfields Coalition
• Susan Bodine, Partner, Earth & Water Law
• Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Associate Professor & Director, Center for Community Engagement, Environmental Justice & Health, Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, School of Public Health University of Maryland
• Jerome Shabazz, Executive Director, Overbrook Environmental Education Center, Philadelphia
• mark! Lopez, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Commerce, Calif.

12/08/2021 at 10:00AM