Environment & Energy Congressional Round-Up | July 25-29

Highlights:

Draft text of the Inflation Reduction Act was released. It proposes $369 billion of investments in climate change and energy security programs over ten years, as well aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030.

The Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R. 2021) passed the House Natural Resources Committee. The bill aims to integrate environmental justice considerations into all steps of federal decision-making, and is the result of a process that began in late 2018 and incorporated guidance from environmental justice leaders. For more information, check out our article, Environmental Justice Bill Seeks to Incorporate Climate Justice into Federal Actions.

The House passed the Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, a package of nearly 50 bills that includes investing in ecosystem and water infrastructure improvement, boosting wildland firefighting pay and leave, and improving agency wildfire programs. EESI’s briefing Living with Climate Change: Wildfires provides more context on policies and practices to reduce wildfire risk in the United States.

Finally, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on the United States Department of Agriculture Hemp Production Program. EESI covers the environmental, energy, and climate highlights of the Congressional hearings for the 2023 Farm Bill here.

 

To see the full update of recent environment and energy legislation from last week, view the PDF.