Hill Heat

Witness

• Pete Buttigieg, Secretary, Department of Transportation

This hearing will explore the changes we are seeing in climate, the efforts underway to study those changes, and the economic risks and impacts the climate crisis poses to labor supply, human health, and the American economy. It will also explore the disparate impacts of the climate crisis on low-income communities and communities of color.

Witnesses:

• Heather McTeer Toney, Climate Justice Liaison, Environmental Defense Fund & Senior Advisor, Moms Clean Air Force. A former Southeast Regional Administrator for President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Toney now supports a network of more than one million moms and dads united against air pollution and climate change. She was also the first female, first Black, and youngest Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, where she served for two terms.
• Waleed Abdalati, Director, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder. Abdalati leads a team of more than 800 scientists who work in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study issues related to weather and climate, changes at Earth’s poles, air quality and atmospheric chemistry, water resources, and solid Earth sciences. A professor of geography, Abdalati also works on research that uses satellites and other science-based observations to measure changes in Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets, studying the processes that contribute to sea level rise.
• Michael Greenstone, Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, University of Chicago. An expert on environmental and energy economics, Greenstone served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the government’s social cost of carbon. He also serves as director of the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics and the Energy Policy Institute at Chicago (EPIC).
• Shawn Gillen, PhD, City Manager, Tybee Island. Gillen is in charge of daily operations in Tybee Island, a coastal city in Georgia with approximately 3,000 residents. He previously served as city manager in Doraville, Georgia; as city administrator in Grand Rapids, Minnesota; and as mayor of Monmouth, Illinois.

Hearing page

Witnesses

• David Wallace-Wells, Editor At Large, New York Magazine, Author, The Uninhabitable Earth
• Dr. Robert B. Litterman, Chair, Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee, Commodity Futures Trading Commission
• Dr. Joseph Stiglitz, Professor Of Economics, Columbia University
• George R. Oliver, Chairman And CEO, Johnson Controls, Chair, Business Roundtable Energy and Environment Committee
• Richard J. Powell, Executive Director, ClearPath Inc.

Briefing memorandum

Witnesses

• Mildred McClain, Ph.D., Executive Director, Harambee House/Citizens for Environmentalm Justice
• Angelo Logan, Campaign Director, Moving Forward Network
• Elizabeth Yeampierre, J.D., Executive Director, UPROSE
• Derrick Hollie, Founder, Reaching America
• Shay Hawkins, President, Opportunity Funds Association
• Adrienne Hollis, Ph.D., J.D., Senior Climate Justice and Health Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists

Legislation: Legislation

• H.R. 1512, the “Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act” or the “CLEAN Future Act”
• H.R. 501, the “Climate Smart Ports Act”
• H.R. 516, the “Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021”
• H.R. 861, the “Alerting Localities of Environmental Risks and Threats Act of 2021”
• H.R. 862, the “Climate Action Planning for Ports Act of 2021”
• H.R. 2021, the “Environmental Justice for All Act”
• H.R. 2394, the “Climate Justice Act of 2021”
• H.R. 2396, the “Ensuring Safe Disposal of Coal Ash Act”
• H.R. 2431, the “Voices for Environmental Justice Act”
• H.R. 2434, the “Environmental Justice Act of 2021”
• H.R. 2397, the “Protection from Cumulative Emissions and Underenforcement of Environmental Law Act of 2021”

Witnesses

• Nicole LeBoeuf, Acting Assistant Administrator, National Ocean Service
• Dr. Stephen Volz, Assistant Administrator for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, performing the duties of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction

The purpose of the hearing is to examine the leading role of the Department of Energy in American energy innovation and how its research, development, demonstration, and deployment programs may be enhanced to further boost the economic competitiveness of the United States.

Witnesses:

• Dr. Thomas Mason, Director, Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Paul M. Dabbar, Chairman and CEO, Bohr Quantum Technologies Corp., Former Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy
• Sarah Ladislaw, Managing Director of the U.S. Program, RMI
• Dr. Lara Pierpoint, Director, Climate Actuate

Hearing page

Hearing page