Hill Heat

Full committee hearing.

Witnesses:

• General Michael E. Langley, USMC, Commander, United States Africa Command
• General Michael E. Kurilla, USA, Commander, United States Central Command

On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 2:00 p.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:

• H.R. 6482 (Rep. Fulcher), “Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act”;
• H.R. 7370 (Rep. Curtis), “Geothermal Energy Opportunity Act” or the “GEO Act”;
• H.R. 7375 (Rep. Hageman), To amend the Mineral Leasing Act to improve the assessment of expression of interest fees, and for other purposes;
• H.R. 7377 (Rep. Hunt), “Royalty Resiliency Act”;
• H.R. 7409 (Rep. Kim of Calif.), “Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act” or the “HEATS Act”; and
• H.R. 7422 (Rep. Ocasio-Cortez), “Geothermal Cost-Recovery Authority Act of 2024”.

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Benjamin E. Gruber, Deputy Assistant Director, Energy, Minerals, and Realty, Bureau of Land Management [All Bills]
• Steve Dudgeon, Principal, Severance Tax/Royalty, Ryan LLC, Houston, TX [H.R. 7377]
• Dr. Bryant Jones, Executive Director, Geothermal Rising, Boise, ID [H.R. 6482, H.R. 7370, H.R. 7409, and H.R. 7422]
• Dan Naatz, Chief Operating Officer, Independent Petroleum Association of America [H.R. 7375, and H.R. 7377]
• Joe Uehlein, Founding President, Labor Network for Sustainability [Minority Witness] [H.R. 7422]

H.R. 6482 aims to streamline the permitting process for geothermal energy by exempting geothermal exploration wells (temperature gradient wells, monitoring wells, and calibration wells) from review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

H.R.7370 would require DOI to continue processing drilling permits and other authorizations within 30 days unless a United States Federal court vacates the underlying lease.

H.R. 7409 would expedite the development of geothermal energy on non-federal lands that involve federal minerals. Currently, geothermal operators on non-federal land producing any amount of federal resources must abide by all federal laws and permitting processes, even if the share of federal minerals is minuscule. H.R. 7409 would address this issue by clarifying that geothermal exploration or production wells on non-federal lands are not subject to NEPA, Section 7 of ESA, or Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) if the United States holds an ownership interest of less than 50 percent of the subsurface geothermal estate and the operator receives a drilling permit from the respective state.

H.R. 7422 would provide DOI with explicit authority to charge geothermal leaseholders fees to recover costs for geothermal lease applications, GPDs, utilization plans, site licenses, facility construction permits, commercial use permits, other approvals associated with a geothermal lease, and inspection and monitoring of exploration activities, drilling and plugging of wells, and construction, operation, and reclamation of wells sites.

H.R. 7375 reverses the expression-of-interest fee increases in the Inflation Reduction Act for oil or gas leases. In the case that EOI acreage is submitted and not bid on during a lease sale, the person or entity that first submitted the acreage would be required to pay the fee. The bill would also ensure that EOIs remain active for a period of at least five years instead of three.

H.R. 7377 reduces royalty paments on oil and gas leases.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 10:15 a.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 bill:

• H.R. 7408 (Rep. Westerman), “America’s Wildlife Habitat Conservation Act” (major provisions)

Hearing memo

Witnesses:

• Matthew Strickler, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
• Austin Booth, Director, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Little Rock, Arkansas
• Ryan Bronson, Director of Government Affairs, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Missoula, Montana
• David P. Tenny, President and CEO, National Alliance of Forest Owners
• Glenn Olson, Donal O’Brien Chair in Bird Conservation and Public Policy National Audubon Society, National Audubon Society, New York, New York [Minority Witness]

In 2000, Congress also created the State Wildlife Grant Program to provide critical funding to state and territory fish and wildlife agencies to implement their SWAPs to conserve at-risk fish and wildlife. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, states received a total of $67.6 million through this grant program. The formula used for apportionment to each state is one-third based on the total land area of the state and two-thirds based on the population of each state.

The AWHCA replaces the existing State Wildlife Grants Program by creating a Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Restoration subaccount under the Pittman-Roberston Act. This grant program would be authorized at no more than $300 million per fiscal year for five years. Funding would be apportioned to states based on a new formula: one-half based on the land area of the state, one-quarter based on the state’s population, and one-quarter based on the number of species listed under the ESA within that state. This change to the existing formula will allow for funding to get to the places where it is needed most.

The bill prohibits the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (the Services) from designating critical habitat on private lands that are implementing habitat conservation and restoration actions designed to conserve the species in question and approved by the Services.

The bill amends the definition of “conserve,” “conserving,” and “conservation” to allow for the regulated take of threatened species. Currently, the definition only allows for regulated take “in the extraordinary case where population pressures within a given ecosystem cannot be otherwise relieved.” This standard has been interpreted by federal courts to mostly prohibit any regulated take of threatened species. This section amends the definition to allow for regulated take “at the discretion of the Secretary,” therefore granting additional flexibility to the Services.

Full committee hearing.

Witness:

• Rostin Behnam, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission

The purpose of this hearing is to assess the United States’ leadership in weather forecasting and modeling. The hearing will discuss the impacts of the Weather Act of 2017 and the Weather Act Reauthorization of 2023 in bolstering U.S. competitiveness in the global weather community. This hearing will also discuss the coordination and collaboration of government agencies, the private sector, and academia to implement programs that advance new technologies related to data assimilation and modeling.

Hearing charter

Witnesses:

• Dr. Neil Jacobs, former acting Trump NOAA Administrator, 2019-2021
• Dr. Kevin Petty, Chief Executive Officer, Aeris LLC
• Dr. Scott Weaver, Chief Executive Officer, CLIMET Consulting

Full committee hearing.

Witnesses:

• Dina Esposito, Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Resilience, Environment, and Food Security, United States Agency for International Development
• Dr. Cary Fowler, Special Envoy for Global Food Security, United States Department of State

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “National Transportation Safety Board Investigations Report” with testimony from NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 10:00 AM EST.

Witness:

• Jennifer Homendy, Chair, National Transportation Safety Board

TIME AND DATE: Notice is hereby given, pursuant to the provisions of the Government in the Sunshine Act, Pub. L. 94-409, that the Securities and Exchange Commission will hold an Open Meeting on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, at 9:45 a.m.

PLACE: The meeting will be webcast on the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.

STATUS: This meeting will begin at 9:45 a.m. (ET) and will be open to the public via webcast on the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:

• The Commission will consider whether to adopt amendments to the national market system (NMS) stock order execution disclosure requirements of Regulation NMS under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that would expand the scope of entities subject to Rule 605, modify the categorization and content of order information reported under the rule, and require reporting entities to produce a summary report of execution quality.
• The Commission will consider whether to adopt rules to require registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports.

Join Axios for an event in Washington, D.C., convening policy and business leaders to talk about the real impact the IRA has on clean energy industry growth and how it will influence future investment.

Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman, energy reporter Ben Geman, and Axios Pro energy and climate reporter Nick Sobczyk will host one-on-one conversations with:

• Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy
• Mike Levin, Representative, California’s 49th Congressional District, Member, House Veterans’ Affairs, Natural Resources Committees
• John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy

Axios will host a View from the Top segment with:

• Dawn Lippert, CEO, Elemental Excelerator & Founding Partner, Earthshot Ventures
• Allen Blue, Co-founder, LinkedIn

Livestream link here.

9:00 am ET | Doors open. Coffee & breakfast served

9:30 am – 10:30 am ET | Mainstage conversations

10:30 am ET | Event concludes

The Showroom 1099 14th St NW Washington, D.C., 20005

It’s a People’s House Party! Join People’s Action, SURJ and Seed The Vote to hear what you can do to elect and defend progressive leaders up and down the ballot in 2024, with grassroots leaders from Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and more, Sulma Arias and Marta Popadiak from People’s Action, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY-16), Juanita Lewis from Community Voices Heard, and more special guests.

Join us as People’s Action, SURJ, Seed the Vote, and champions like U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman launch the next phase of our fight to elect working class champions and block the assault on our movement led by AIPAC and other right-wing corporate donors.

If you’re ready for a real democracy led by poor and working class people and which answers to all of us, not just the very wealthy, the most important thing you can do next week is join our event and find out how you can get in the fight.