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August 14, 2020
From January to July 2020, Congress convened 50 standing committee hearings on topics related to climate, energy, and the environment, according to EESI’s review of committee websites. These hearings reflect Congress’s interest in building a greener America through environmental policy.
Excluding April and May, which as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a combined total of two hearings on these topics, Congress averaged ten climate-related hearings per month from January to July of this year. The House convened 29 climate-related hearings compared to the Senate’s 21 hearings. Further, 40 percent of House standing committees organized hearings to address climate concerns while only 18 percent of Senate standing committees met for this purpose. However, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has conducted 12 climate hearings since January—the most of all the standing committees in either chamber (see graphic). On the House side, the Energy and Commerce Committee held 11 climate-related hearings during the same time period.
Number of hearings on climate and environment topics held by each standing committee from January - July 2020. The blue bars are House Committees and the gray bars are Senate Committees.
Together, the standing committees covered a total of 15 climate, energy, and environment topics in these 50 hearings. The House considered all 15 topics, but the Senate only touched on 11—leaving out environmental justice, resilience and adaptation, agriculture, and climate impacts. The most frequently explored topic in both the House and the Senate committees was conservation and natural resources—the House convened seven hearings on this theme and the Senate convened four. The other most frequent topic areas included clean and renewable energy and pollution. The Senate also focused on transportation and infrastructure. Agriculture and climate impacts received the least amount of attention of all the topics: each was only discussed once.
This chart shows the frequency with which a topic is covered in House (blue) and Senate (gray) hearings designated by EESI as climate, energy, and environment focused. Some hearings fall into more than one category.
It is notable that 18 of the 50 hearings (36 percent) touched on more than one of these environment-, climate-, or energy-related subjects. Conservation and natural resources, the most recurrent theme, was considered by itself and alongside environmental justice and science. One particularly interesting hearing tackling several topics was the House Agriculture Committee’s Innovative Wood Products: Promoting Rural Economies and Healthy Forests. Clean and renewable energy, the second-most common theme, was discussed alongside energy efficiency, environmental justice, public health, the role of the federal government, and transportation and infrastructure in hearings such as Energy Infrastructure and Environmental Justice: Lessons for a Sustainable Future (House Natural Resources Committee) and The Transformation of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) (House Natural Resources Committee). Seven hearings focused on COVID-19 and its impacts on the environment, the clean energy industry, pollution and environmental justice, and public land use. Examples of hearings at the nexus of COVID-19 and climate include Reviving our Economy: COVID-19’s Impact on the Energy Sector (House Committee on Energy and Commerce) and Pollution and Pandemics: COVID-19’s Disproportionate Impact on Environmental Justice Communities (House Committee on Energy and Commerce).
In addition to these standing committee hearings, the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis held two hearings entitled Creating a Climate Resilient America: Overcoming the Health Risks of the Climate Crisis and Solving the Climate Crisis: Building a Vibrant and Just Clean Energy Economy. The Select Committee also released its majority staff report, Solving the Climate Crisis: The Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy and a Healthy and Just America, which EESI analyzed in a briefing and series of articles.
Despite the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, Congress continues to move forward with policy on climate, energy and the environment. Check EESI’s breakdown of 2019’s climate, energy and environment hearings.
Author: Maeve Arthur
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