For the first time ever, a congressional committee will hold a field hearing on the climate crisis, and it's happening in Boulder, Colorado, Thursday, August 1.
The 15-member bipartisan committee was set up earlier this year and has already been meeting in DC.
Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse is one of nine Democrats on the committee. He said there are plenty of reasons they chose to have their first congressional field hearing in Boulder, Colorado.
“We are in many respects the epicenter for climate change research,” he said. “We have 13 federal labs in my district alone.”
He said his district is also home to several cities that are already transitioning to renewables.
The official title of the hearing is “Colorado’s Roadmap for Clean Energy Action: Lessons from State and Local Leaders.”
Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) the mayors of Boulder and Fort Collins, energy and sustainability academics, and a CEO from the oil and gas industry are slated to speak.
“The hope,” said Neguse, “is that we can take some of the best practices they’ve enacted here and export those to Washington DC.”
The hearing is free and open to the public at the CU Boulder law school from 9am to noon Mountain Time. It will also be livestreamed on the web.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, KUNR in Nevada and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.
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