On the Hill in 2025: A Breakdown of Climate, Energy, and Environmental Congressional Hearings

Congressional hearings are a key area of business on Capitol Hill. From receiving testimony from agency heads to gathering expert information that can guide future legislation, hearings are a venue for essential knowledge-sharing and debate around pressing and timely issues. To keep up with these happenings, the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) tracks hearings related to climate, energy, and environment topics year-round. EESI identified 180 hearings on these subjects in 2025.

Check out EESI’s articles about   hearings over the course of 2025

January and February  March and April May and June July and August September and October

In the Heads of the House

The House of Representatives hosted 128 of these hearings across 13 committees. The Natural Resources Committee alone led a third of them (44 hearings total), with particular attention to wildfires (6 hearings), wildlife (6 hearings, from bipartisan efforts to combat illegal fishing and protect fisheries to Republican-led efforts to curb the reach of the Endangered Species Act), public land management (6 hearings, largely focused on opening federal lands to fossil fuel development and mining), critical minerals (5), and permitting (2). The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure followed with 20 hearings. More than half of these comprised the Committee’s America Builds series, while hearings such as Reforming FEMA and Fixing Emergency Management examined the state of federal disaster response ahead of proposed changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) via the FEMA Act of 2025 (H.R.4669).

Dive Deeper

The State of PFAS Forever Chemicals in America  Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition

Also among the 13 House committees holding climate and energy hearings in 2025 were six committees not traditionally focused on those issues. The Committee on Homeland Security held a hearing on FEMA reform. An Armed Services Committee hearing discussed historic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination from military activities and climate resilience, grid resilience, and energy reliability at military installations. Following the January 2025 wildfires in California, the Judiciary Committee examined the impacts of regulation and permitting on wildfire prevention and recovery. The Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party held hearings on China’s critical mineral supply chain dominance, its cobalt mining activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and its critical mineral pricing. Finally, a Small Business Committee hearing explored the economic opportunities of mining rare earth elements (a key category of critical minerals) in the United States. 

Dive Deeper

Powering Up: Improving Energy Grid Reliability and Resilience to Lower Energy Bills  Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Energy and the Environment Briefing Series: The Next Era of Transportation and Infrastructure

Some topics occupied significantly more headspace than others in the House in 2025. Of the 128 committee hearings in that chamber, 21 focused on energy topics. Many of these hearings took up the intertwined topics of energy reliability and affordability as they relate to the U.S. electric grid (6 hearings), and artificial intelligence and data centers (2). And while three hearings from the Natural Resources Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee discussed expanding onshore and offshore fossil fuel development, even more House hearings (5 total) explored clean energy—namely, geothermal energy, hydropower, and nuclear energy, the latter of which warranted three hearings. Another 21 hearings focused on infrastructure, including 11 America Builds hearings on transportation infrastructure—from highways and railways to airports and seaports—and four hearings on water infrastructure. Agriculture and appropriations topics followed with 12 hearings each, and 10 hearings focused on critical minerals.

Witnesses assemble before members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on January 23, 2025, for an America Builds hearing on the state of U.S. freight and passenger rail. | Credit: House Recording Studio

 

Senate Committee Priorities

The Senate held 52 climate, energy, and environment hearings across 13 of its 24 committees. The Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) held the most such hearings (12), covering a wide range of topics. Infrastructure—particularly transportation infrastructure—took up 5 of those EPW hearings. The Committee also examined carbon capture technologies, permitting, wildfire emissions, and PFAS regulation, among other issues. The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held the second-most Senate hearings on climate, energy, and the environment (9), convening to discuss the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, proposed critical minerals legislation, increasing electricity demand, and federal public lands management. 

Climate and environment hearings also saw some unconventional players in the Senate. The Special Committee on Aging held hearings on older Americans’ vulnerability to extreme weather and natural disasters and on the dwindling number of family farms in operation as the agricultural workforce ages. Both the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs discussed climate insurance. The Judiciary Committee examined energy competition with China, while the Foreign Relations Committee sought opportunities for U.S.-Africa partnerships on critical minerals. The Finance Committee examined trade, competition, and supply chain vulnerabilities related to critical minerals, soybeans, and medical technologies. And the Committee on Armed Services discussed the National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 119-60), including provisions on PFAS contamination and the climate resilience of military installations, before the Act passed in December. 

EESI's Farm Bill Resources

Dig into EESI’s Farm Bill resources, including briefings, legislative side-by-sides, articles, and podcasts here.

The priorities of the Senate as a whole diverged somewhat from those of the House in 2025. Where the House focused most frequently on energy and transportation infrastructure, reigning hearing topics in the Senate included budget and appropriations for nine different agencies (11 hearings), agriculture (8), and transportation and water infrastructure (8). Half of the Senate’s agricultural hearings formed a series titled Perspectives from the Field, which highlighted testimony from farm owners, state farm bureaus, and produce, grain, and livestock associations on the challenges threatening U.S. agriculture, such as extreme and unpredictable weather, trade wars, and workforce availability.

 

As Time Goes By

Committee hearings are indicative of the most pressing and timely issues facing Congress. The number and subject matter of hearings may reflect changes in the Administration or in House and Senate leadership. They also vary as climate change presents new or intensified challenges and as new climate and energy solutions arise. For a glimpse of how committee priorities have changed in recent years, check out our breakdowns of hearings for 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. 

Author: Nicole Pouy