Energy and Climate

House Commerce Committee Chairman-Elect Brett Guthrie (R-KY) welcomes the ten new members selected by the House Republican Steering Committee to serve on the Energy & Commerce Committee in the 119^th Congress. The new Republican members of the committee are:

House Commerce Committee Chairman-Elect Brett Guthrie (R-KY) announced that two long-time aides will lead the Energy & Commerce Committee as Staff Director and Deputy Staff Director. Megan Jackson will serve as Staff Director of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Sophie Trainor Khanahmadi will serve as Deputy Staff Director of the Energy & Commerce Committee. Megan is a Kentucky native and trusted advisor who worked for Guthrie on his first Congressional campaign in 2008. She then spent more than eight years as his Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director.

Sen Edward Markey (D-MA) today reintroduced the Generating Resilient and Energy Efficient Network (GREEN) Communications Act to sustainably defend communications networks against climate change and extreme weather disasters. The GREEN Communications Act would specifically:

Sens Edward Markey (D-MA) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Rep Alma Adams, Ph.D. (D-NC) introduced the Public Archives Resiliency Act, which would authorize grants to promote preservation, climate resilience, adaption, and continuity of vital government records and protect other records of historical or cultural significance.

From communities in Appalachia and Florida to the Hawaiian Islands, no part of the US is untouched by the increased climate-related disasters we’ve seen in the past few years. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is updating and publishing a disaster response framework, and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance submitted comments to advocate for stronger integration of digital inclusion activities into post-disaster efforts. NDIA's key recommendations fall under five main categories:

National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson issued a statement on the election results, congratulating President-Elect Trump and touching on electric cooperative policy priorities: 

As communities across the Southeast US continue recovery efforts following the devastating hurricanes of late summer, one refrain stands out: connectivity is critical in disaster scenarios, and when the internet goes down, communities are cut off. Unfortunately, with climate-related risks increasing, many more communities are likely to face chall

It’s clear we need more resiliency in our broadband policy. If nothing else, the hurricanes ravaging the U.S. Southeast have shown us that. In the last few weeks, pervasive wireless and wireline communication outages have left people that are already struggling in the wake of disaster completely cut off from resources, important news updates, and loved ones.

In the late hours of Thursday, September 26, Hurricane Helene made landfall at Keaton Beach (FL). On Friday, downgraded to a tropical storm, Helene made its way up the east coast, leaving a path of destruction through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Hurricane Hellene arrived in Asheville (NC) on the evening of September 26. However, there was a big precursor to the storm, and we had over 15 inches of rain in September before the storm got here. That means the ground was fully saturated, the streams were already running at near-flood conditions, and lakes and reservoirs were already full.