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

Congressional committees held 25 climate, energy, and environment-related hearings in March and April, continuing the 119th Congress’s early and vigorous oversight. The House of Representatives held 20 of these hearings, while the Senate held five. Major themes included transportation infrastructure, emergency preparedness, pollution remediation, and the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and power consumption.

The House Committees on Natural Resources and Transportation and Infrastructure led the hearings scoreboard with five hearings each. The Natural Resources hearings focused largely on reviewing land use and wildlife legislation—including the FLASH Act (H.R.1820), the Great Lakes Fishery Research Reauthorization Act (H.R.1809), and the Wetlands Conservation and Access Improvement Act of 2025 (H.R.2316).

As Congressional offices prepare for the 2026 reauthorization of the surface transportation bill, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) has pledged to incorporate input from stakeholders. Accordingly, the committee held three more hearings in its America Builds series, which focuses on identifying needs and priorities to inform the next version of the surface transportation bill. March and April transportation hearings covered trucking and American communities, airport infrastructure and safety, and transit policy and programs. The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works also met to discuss the surface transportation reauthorization bill, focusing on U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy’s perspective on the issue.

AI’s growing energy footprint was another area of focus. In a hearing titled America’s AI Moonshot, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce looked at how exponential advances in AI could increase power consumption and change the U.S. energy landscape. This topic was further explored in an Energy and Commerce hearing on U.S. competitiveness in AI and the energy implications of its widespread use.

As pressure builds to update the U.S. electric grid, lawmakers held two hearings addressing grid reliability and energy demand. The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hosted five environment-related hearings, including a hearing titled Keeping the Lights On: Examining the State of Regional Grid Reliability, in which members and witnesses emphasized the need for resilient, affordable power as energy demands increase with developments in artificial intelligence and domestic manufacturing. A related Energy Subcommittee hearing, Scaling for Growth: Meeting the Demand for Reliable, Affordable Electricity, examined how policymakers and utility companies can meet electricity demand amid restrictions on new natural gas pipelines in the Northeast and the increased competitivity of renewable energy sources compared to fossil fuel sources.

Congress also turned its attention to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in two separate hearings: Future of FEMA: Perspectives from the Emergency Management Community, held by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Reforming FEMA: Bringing Common Sense Back to Federal Emergency Management, held by the House Committee on Homeland Security. These hearings heard testimony from emergency managers and discussed how to strengthen federal disaster response in the face of more frequent and severe weather events.

To keep up with Congressional hearings in the future, get EESI’s weekly Environmental and Energy Congressional Round-Up by subscribing to our biweekly newsletter, Climate Change Solutions.

Author: Whitney Orloff