In the News
North Bay wildfire survivors hope federal funding will help prevent future disasters
by Cornell Barnard
SANTA ROSA, Calif. (KGO) -- Preventing wildfires is one of the components of the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden last month. On Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers toured a North Bay neighborhood devastated by wildfire four years ago, officials say new investments may prevent future tragedies.Santa Rosa's Coffey Park was ground zero for the Tubbs wildfire in 2017. 3,000 homes were lost across the city but than 1,000 of … Continue Reading
December 18, 2021
Pelosi, Thompson, Huffman tout wildfire prevention funding in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park neighborhood
by Emma Murphy
Standing beneath thick fog in Santa Rosa's Coffey Park neighborhood, local leaders joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday morning to tout a surge of new funding for wildfire prevention and climate resilience. President Joe Biden's recently passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill includes what Sonoma County's two congressmen, Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, hailed Saturday as historic investments to prevent devastating wildfires like the 2017 Tubbs fire. It razed 1,422 Coffey Park … Continue Reading
December 17, 2021
Greens regroup as offshore drilling ban appears doomed
by Emma Dumain
The Senate's climate and social spending package could exclude permanent bans on offshore drilling in the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico - and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is the reason. It would be the latest major environmental priority Manchin has nixed from the Democrats' reconciliation package. His opposition to the larger bill caused party leaders to delay its floor consideration until at least January (see related story). Multiple sources on Capitol Hill and within the … Continue Reading
December 17, 2021
A green Puerto Rico
by Matthew Choi
INTO THE NEW YEAR: Biden acknowledged Thursday that Democrats' $1.7 trillion reconciliation package won't get done this year. But Senate climate hawks remain adamant yet another delay is not damaging to the fortunes of the legislation, Pro's Josh Siegel reports. "It's just a hope we get it done before Christmas," said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii). "But if we get it done after Christmas, that would be just fine." "This is a hard thing to do, but it's an incredibly important thing to do. We … Continue Reading
December 16, 2021
Kamala Harris and the bipartisan infrastructure law
by Tim Perry
Surrounded by lawmakers of both parties and Vice President Kamala Harris, Joe Biden celebrated the biggest win of his presidency so far, signing into law the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill last month. "It's a big deal," the president said, a reference to something he had said more than a decade ago as vice president, when then-President Obama signed his landmark health care law. Mr. Biden's turn as the second-in-command received largely positive reviews. Vice presidential … Continue Reading
December 15, 2021
Studies continue for Last Chance Grade Project
by Jackson Guilfoil
Caltrans is working to assess the environmental impacts of two proposed construction projects which aim to find a solution to the routine landslides and storms damaging Last Chance Grade, a three-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 101 between Klamath and Crescent City. The reports, which are expected to be completed in 2023, are assessing the impact of two alternatives. Alternative F, which would build an estimated $1.3 billion tunnel, and Alternative X, which would move the road inland, install … Continue Reading
December 10, 2021
‘It’s grotesque’: Inside the Hill methane fight
by Nick Sobczyk and Heather Richards
Progressives set out to write a reconciliation bill that would scrap special tax treatment for fossil fuel companies. Instead, they might hand the oil and gas industry a new subsidy. Democrats struck a deal in October with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Texas moderates to pair a methane fee with $775 million in grants, loans and rebates for oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce methane pollution, which accounts for 20 percent of all global emissions, … Continue Reading
December 08, 2021
Climate and the parliamentarian
by Matthew Choi
SHARING THE COST OF WATER: A group of House lawmakers are hoping to make it easier for American Indian tribes to get access to federal water relief. Reps. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Huffman, Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) are introducing the WaterSMART Access for Tribes Act today, which would allow the Interior secretary to reduce or waive cost-share requirements for tribal governments … Continue Reading
December 08, 2021
House Democrats ask DC Circuit to vacate Interior's latest offshore lease sale
by Meghan Gordon
Three top Democrats in the US House of Representatives have asked a federal court to vacate the Interior Department's latest oil and gas lease sale, which opened some 80 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico. The suit to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit argues Interior's Nov. 17 Lease Sale 257 violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. It said Interior should have performed a greenhouse gas emissions analysis. House Natural … Continue Reading
December 06, 2021
Big week for reconciliation as Dems look to finish changes
by Manuel Quiñones
Senate Democrats are looking to finish changes to the budget reconciliation bill in the coming days before moving it to the floor as soon as next week, if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gets his way. But the New York Democrat will have to deal with persistent concerns from Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) - including on climate portions of the $1.7 trillion bill. And Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who has said she supports the budget reconciliation effort but has also … Continue Reading
December 02, 2021
Huffman in D.C. for Lighting of U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree
by CHRISTOPHER AU-YOUNG
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dec. 1st was marked by the lighting of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, Rep. Jared Huffman joined the California delegation in Washington D.C. for the event. Harvested on Oct. 23rd, the 84-foot long white fur tree was shipped from the Golden State on a cross country road trip to the nation's capital. It made plenty of stops along the way, including various parks and plazas, schools, as well as memorials and monuments before arriving on Nov. 19th. Representative Huffman … Continue Reading
December 02, 2021
From Orleans to the Capitol
by Malcolm Terence
I never forget watching a crew starting a prescribed burn in the woods near my neighbor's home back in late spring 2008, in an era when wildfires were just starting to get crazy and often unstoppable. I remember Will Harling handed me a drip torch and told me where to safely light the undergrowth, so when wildfire came, and it surely would, this intentional burn scar might protect the neighborhood. Harling is now a director of the Mid Klamath Watershed Council, a fast-growing nonprofit based … Continue Reading
December 02, 2021
Democrats want to prevent new oil and gas drilling in most U.S. waters. Their plan might work.
by Maxine Joselow and Alexandra Ellerbeck
Democrats might be able to halt most new offshore oil and gas drilling A slew of climate provisions in Democrats' roughly $2 trillion social spending bill face an uncertain future in the Senate. But there's one big exception: limits on offshore oil and gas drilling. Democrats, aides and environmentalists feel confident that the prevention of oil and gas drilling in most U.S. waters will survive scrutiny in the Senate, including from key centrist Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). Under the … Continue Reading
November 29, 2021
Huffman: Infrastructure bill isn’t a big carbon reducer without passage of Build Back Better Act
by Sonia Waraich
MENDOCINO Co., 11/29/21 - A traditional infrastructure bill dedicated to fixing roads and bridges has made it through Congress and across President Joe Biden's desk, but North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman says that package won't mean much for addressing the climate crisis if the Build Back Better Act isn't passed alongside it. The bill passed by the House of Representatives the past Friday, Nov. 19 includes a host of programs that would benefit Mendocino County residents, including funding that … Continue Reading
November 25, 2021
Preserving a Way of Life
by Kimberly Wear
At the confluence of the Klamath and Salmon rivers stands a small mountain known as á›uuyich to the Karuk people, for whom it is the center of the world. Close by is the historic village of Katimiîn, where the Karuk Tribe's annual world renewal ceremony to restore balance to the universe takes place, and down river is Ameekyáaraam, site of the Jump Dance and First Salmon Ceremony. Sacred to the Karuk people since time immemorial, these lands will be among some … Continue Reading
November 19, 2021
Fishing law needs to be more climate responsive, legislation moving forward
by Dave Monti
It's no secret: climate-change impacts of warming water, coastal erosion, habitat degradation, low oxygen and acidification are changing how we fish and how fish should be managed. One has to wonder: what happens when the water warms to the point that even the warm-water fish that have moved into our area like black sea bass, scup and summer flounder leave to go further north to cooler water? Our federal fishing law is not equipped to handle these impacts. On Wednesday, the House … Continue Reading
November 17, 2021
‘These guys pressure you to pay for the insurance.’ Health coverage buyers plagued by misleading marketing, studies show
by Eleanor Laise
A quick web search made Shazad Mohammed the target of a months-long marketing frenzy. Back in September, the 45-year-old systems administrator in Virginia Gardens, Fla., was uninsured due to a recent job change. He typed "private health insurance" into a search engine and landed on a site that promised to help him find coverage if he entered a few basic details. Within minutes, he says, his phone started ringing. And ringing. And ringing. The callers offered Mohammed a hodgepodge of … Continue Reading
November 17, 2021
NOAA, groups back adding climate mandates to fishing law
by Rob Hotakainen
NOAA's top fisheries official yesterday endorsed a plan that would require the agency for the first time in its history to add climate change requirements to its management of the nation's fish stocks. "Fisheries management must continue to adapt as our ocean ecosystem faces unprecedented changes due to climate change," Janet Coit, the head of NOAA Fisheries, told a House Natural Resources panel. Testifying before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife, Coit said NOAA appreciates … Continue Reading
November 17, 2021
Rep. Jared Huffman part of pair reintroducing bill to fully fund special education
by MICHAEL PATTERSON
EUREKA, Calif. - North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman and Sen. Chris Van Vollen (D-Maryland) say they have reintroduced a bill to fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The following is a press release from Sen Jared Huffman's office: Today, Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) reintroduced the IDEA Full Funding Act, bipartisan, bicameral legislation to finally ensure Congress' commitment to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities … Continue Reading
November 17, 2021
Jared Huffman calls for continued climate action following COP 26
by Isabella Vanderheiden
Global leaders gathered in Glasgow, Scotland earlier this month for the 26th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly referred to as COP 26, to explore adaptive strategies and creative solutions to the global climate crisis. After two weeks of negotiations, diplomats from almost 200 countries signed off on the Glasgow Climate Pact and agreed to ramp up carbon-cutting commitments. North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) joined United States representatives at this … Continue Reading