Dems to Hold Two Days of Hearings on Climate

November 15, 2018

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by Timothy Cama (The Hill) House Democrats are planning to hold two days' worth of hearings on the impacts of climate change and potential solutions to it when they take the House majority next year.

The likely chairmen of the Energy and Commerce, Natural Resources and Science committees said in a joint statement Wednesday that their panels will be an attempt to bring back climate debate after eight years of GOP control of the chamber, when leaders downplayed the issue.

Democrats gained dozens of seats when they won the House last week, and have in part credited progressive activism to get them there. The early announcement of hearings is in part a bid to show climate activists that the Democrats take the issue seriously.

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The committees did not provide further details about the hearings, such as the witnesses or structure.

The announcement of the hearings comes amid a growing rift within the Democratic caucus about how to proceed on climate policy. READ MORE

House Dems split on how to tackle climate change (The Hill)

Exclusive: At U.N. climate talks, Trump team plans sideshow on coal (Reuters)

The Energy 202: Top House Democrats don't agree on who should lead on climate change (Washington Post)

The Energy 202: Environmentalists ask House Democrats to investigate Exxon (Washington Post)

'WE CAN'T GO TOO EXTREME': (Politico's Morning Energy)

Democrats and Republicans eye working together on small-ball climate legislation (Washington Examiner)

Political power never lasts. Democrats need to use theirs while they have it. (Washington Post)

John Lewis joins Ocasio-Cortez on climate change push (The Hill)

What exactly is the 'Green New Deal'? (E&E News)

It's time to get to work (Batesville Herald Tribune)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Turf wars are intensifying on House Democrats' side of the Capitol as lawmakers itching to grab chairmen's gavels urge against pushing the party too far to the left on climate change. Veteran Democrats say they want to address the matter, but they take issue with the tactics of Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other newly elected Democrats who say the party needs to come up with a "Green New Deal," Pro's Anthony Adragna and Zack Colman report this morning. "The idea that in five years or 10 years we're not going to consume any more fossil fuels is technologically impossible," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, the likely chairman of the Transportation Committee. "We can have grand goals but let's be realistic about how we get there."

Ocasio-Cortez is working with other progressive members and climate activists to expand the scope of a select committee on climate change that Nancy Pelosi plans to relaunch. The two factions were on display during a closed-door meeting of the chamber's Democrats Thursday, where sources in the room told POLITICO New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone pushed back over the creation of a special panel on the issue. And he isn't the only one growing wary.

Other lawmakers tell Anthony and Zack they are looking for ways to harness the progressive energy within the existing congressional structures so everyone gets on the same page. Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar worried a climate change committee and goals like 100 percent renewable energy could turn off voters in swing districts at a time when Democrats would be unable to do more than pass "messaging" bills. "A lot of the Republican seats that we won — a lot of them are moderate, conservative Democrats, and we have to keep that in mind. Those are the people I'm concerned about," he said. "We can't go too extreme." Read the story. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Examiner: “My goal is to have a demonstrative body of work to reduce carbon emissions, and not just do messaging bills,” Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “We have significant opportunities to pass legislation that would help bring down carbon emissions on a bipartisan basis.”

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Welch, along with Rep. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., who is expected to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on environment, outlined provisions they would support in an infrastructure bill.

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While Welch and Tonko would support major climate legislation like a carbon tax or cap and trade, they acknowledge achieving those goals is unrealistic for now, and are pushing their colleagues to support smaller efforts packaged in a way that can attract Republicans.

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Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath, a conservative clean energy group, notes that many of these measures, and others, enjoy broad Republican support, not just from moderate lawmakers who belong to the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which lost much of its GOP members in the midterms.

“A lot of head-on climate things like carbon taxes are only the domain of moderate Republicans," Powell said. "But with clean energy innovation, there is a broad set of supportive folks who are significantly further to the Right.”

Powell’s group supports bipartisan initiatives that he says have good chances of passing in the next Congress that would make existing fossil fuel plants cleaner and nuclear energy more viable.

Congress last year approved a bill signed by Trump that extended and expanded an existing tax credit to help fund technologies that capture carbon emissions from power plants and store it underground. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Post: With Democrats about to control the House of Representatives again, I have been thinking about that last majority: what it achieved, what it was too cautious to attempt and what that caution actually bought. Because we may be asking the same questions about the next Democratic majority sooner than we think. The lesson of the careful restraint that Democrats showed the last time they controlled either chamber of Congress — and of the Republican ferocity since then — is simple: Your job is not to win power and then maintain it. Your job is to win power and then use it, with the knowledge that you won’t have it forever or even, most likely, for very long at all.

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(T)he limited political imaginations of centrist and moderate lawmakers, and of the party strategists looking forward to the next election, were to blame. Determined to slow things down to protect their majority, Democrats ended up losing that majority without addressing some of the most pressing problems the nation faced.

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Here’s what Democrats didn’t even send to Obama’s desk: bills to reduce carbon emissions, ... but carbon emissions and union support were on the agenda until they were abandoned by skittish Democrats, .... READ MORE

Excerpt from The Hill: Lewis (Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)) is the most high-profile lawmaker to back Ocasio-Cortez's call for a "Green New Deal," which calls for Democrats to craft a climate action plan that pushes for a 100 percent renewable energy economy.

In addition to Lewis, Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.), José Serrano (N.Y.), as well as Reps.-elect Joe Neguse (Colo.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) also just signed onto the proposal, according to Sunrise Movement, an environmental activist group.

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Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and incoming Reps. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have also backed the plan, according to Politico.

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Activists have called Pelosi's plan to revive the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming a "toothless" proposal. They say restarting the committee doesn't go far enough and are calling for the committee to push for an ambitious agenda to address climate change.

In addition to transitioning to a 100 percent renewable energy economy, the "Green New Deal" would also include building a national "smart" grid, making "green" technology a major export for the U.S. and decarbonizing the manufacturing and agricultural industries. READ MORE