This week in climate policy: what you need to know

Here’s what ahead this week in climate policy:

Wednesday March 6: The Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies for consumer packaging. EPR policies require producers to contribute the cost attributed to recycling plastic back into the marketplace. Witnesses include Erin Simon, vice president of plastic waste and business at World Wildlife Fund, H. Fisk Johnson, chairman and CEO at S.C.Johnson & Son, and Dan Felton, executive director at AMERIPEN. 

Wednesday March 6: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing regarding global food security, a topic indelibly linked with sustainable food production and land restoration. Witnesses include Dina Esposito from the Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security from the US Agency for International Development, and Dr. Cary Fowler, special envoy for global food security for the US Department of State.

Wednesday March 6: The House Committee on Natural Resources will hold a legislative hearing on a number of bills, including H.R. 6482, “Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act,” H.R. 7370, “Geothermal Energy Opportunity Act,” H.R. 7409, “Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act,” and H.R. 7422, “Geothermal Cost-Recovery Authority Act of 2024,” among others. Geothermal energy is a promising zero-carbon energy alternative;  just 0.1 percent of energy captured from the heat of the earth’s core has the potential to power humanity for 2 million years.

Thursday March 7: The House Committee on Natural Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled “Monetizing Nature and Locking up Public Land: The Implications of Biden’s Strategy for Natural Capital Accounting.” Natural capital — the value extracted from from soil, air, water, and other naturally occurring elements — has the potential to generate $10 trillion annually in business opportunities.