DISCUSSION DRAFT OF H.R. ____, ‘‘INSULAR AREA CLIMATE CHANGE ACT’’ LEGISLATIVE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION Thursday, March 4, 2021 Serial No. 117–1 Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov or Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 43–630 PDF WASHINGTON : 2021 COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES RAU´ L M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Chair JESU´ S G. ‘‘CHUY’’ GARCI´A, IL, Vice Chair GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, CNMI, Vice Chair, Insular Affairs BRUCE WESTERMAN, AR, Ranking Member Grace F. Napolitano, CA Don Young, AK Jim Costa, CA Louie Gohmert, TX Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, CNMI Doug Lamborn, CO Jared Huffman, CA Robert J. Wittman, VA Alan S. Lowenthal, CA Tom McClintock, CA Ruben Gallego, AZ Paul A. Gosar, AZ Joe Neguse, CO Garret Graves, LA Mike Levin, CA Jody B. Hice, GA Katie Porter, CA Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, AS Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM Daniel Webster, FL Nydia M. Vela´zquez, NY Jenniffer Gonza´lez-Colo´n, PR Diana DeGette, CO Russ Fulcher, ID Julia Brownley, CA Pete Stauber, MN Debbie Dingell, MI Thomas P. Tiffany, WI A. Donald McEachin, VA Jerry L. Carl, AL Darren Soto, FL Matthew M. Rosendale, Sr., MT Michael F. Q. San Nicolas, GU Blake D. Moore, UT Jesu´ s G. ‘‘Chuy’’ Garcı´a, IL Yvette Herrell, NM Ed Case, HI Lauren Boebert, CO Betty McCollum, MN Jay Obernolte, CA Steve Cohen, TN Cliff Bentz, OR Paul Tonko, NY Rashida Tlaib, MI Doris O. Matsui, CA Lori Trahan, MA David Watkins, Staff Director Sarah Lim, Chief Counsel Vivian Moeglein, Republican Staff Director http://naturalresources.house.gov (II) CONTENTS Page Hearing held on Thursday, March 4, 2021 ............................................................ 1 Statement of Members: Gonza´lez-Colo´n, Hon. Jenniffer, a Resident Commissioner in Congress from the Territory of Puerto Rico ................................................................ 2 Grijalva, Hon. Rau´ l M., a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona ...................................................................................................... 2 Westerman, Hon. Bruce, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arkansas .................................................................................................... 77 Statement of Witnesses: Grecni, Zena, Sustained Climate Assessment Specialist, East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii ............................................................................ 49 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 50 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 58 Machargo Maldonado, Rafael A., Secretary, Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, San Juan, Puerto Rico ..................................... 36 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 37 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 39 Monzo´n, Ada, President, EcoExploratorio, Puerto Rico Science Museum, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico ................................................................................. 4 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 6 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 8 Oriol, Jean-Pierre L., Commissioner, Department of Planning and Natural Resources, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands ................................. 34 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 74 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 76 Shelton, Austin, Ph.D., Director, Center for Island Sustainability, University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam ........................................................ 66 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 68 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 70 Zackios, Gerald M., Ambassador to the United States, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Washington, DC ............................................................. 17 Prepared statement of ............................................................................... 18 Questions submitted for the record ......................................................... 27 Additional Materials Submitted for the Record: Save Jauca Committee, December 12, 2020 Letter to Chair Grijalva ......... 95 (III) LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON DISCUSSION DRAFT OF H.R. ____, TO PROVIDE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE PLANNING, MITIGATION, ADAPTATION, AND RESILIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES TERRITORIES AND FREELY ASSOCIATED STATES, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, ‘‘INSULAR AREA CLIMATE CHANGE ACT’’ Thursday, March 4, 2021 U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Washington, DC The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 12 p.m., via Webex, Hon. Rau´ l M. Grijalva [Chairman of the Committee] presiding. Present: Representatives Grijalva, Sablan, Lowenthal, Porter, Leger Fernandez, DeGette, Soto, Garcı´a, McCollum, Cohen, Tlaib; Westerman, Gohmert, Radewagen, Gonza´lez-Colo´n, Stauber, Tiffany, Carl, Rosendale, Moore, and Bentz. The CHAIRMAN. The Committee will come to order. The Committee is meeting today to receive testimony on legisla- tion authored to address issues related to our planet’s changing climate and the impact it is having on our insular areas. Under Committee Rule 4(f), any oral opening statements at the hearing are limited to the Chair and the Ranking Minority Member or their designee. This will allow us to hear from our witnesses sooner and help Members keep to their schedules. Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that all other Members’ opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they are submitted to the Clerk by 5 p.m. today or at the close of this hearing, whichever comes first. Hearing no objection, so ordered. Without objection, the Chair may also declare a recess subject to the call of the Chair. As described in the notice, statements, documents, or motions must be submitted to the electronic repository at HNRCdocs@mail. house.gov. Additionally, please note that as with in-person meetings, Members are responsible for their own microphones. As with our in-person meetings, Members may be muted by our staff only to avoid inadvertent background noise. Finally, Members or witnesses experiencing technical problems should inform Committee staff immediately. Let me now recognize myself for the opening statement, and then I will turn to the Ranking Minority Member for their statement. (1) 2 STATEMENT OF THE HON. RAU´ L M. GRIJALVA, A REPRESENT- ATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA The CHAIRMAN. Last Congress, the Natural Resources Committee embarked on an agenda to highlight and gather facts on the impact of changing climate on our planet. The Committee held the first climate change hearings in nearly a decade and took action to fight the climate crisis. We listened to scientists, elected leaders, Native American communities, youth advocates, and members of the public, and their comments and stories informed the action we took on climate change last year. One of those actions led to the development of the Insular Area Climate Change Act of 2021, this discussion draft that is before us today. U.S. territories and Freely Associated States, also known as U.S.- affiliated insular areas, are on the front lines of the climate change crisis. In recent years, some territories have experienced major natural disasters stemming from climate change, including Hurri- cane Irma, Hurricane Maria in 2017, and Typhoon Yutu in 2018. Insular areas face sea-level rise, coastal erosion, temperature increases, and droughts like other jurisdictions. Nevertheless, insu- lar areas experience additional vulnerabilities, such as an unequal access to Federal programs, an over-reliance on petroleum, and an existing infrastructure that fails to meet new hazard-mitigation codes. The U.S.-affiliated small island nations increasingly are being forced to consider what will happen if the rising sea washes over their lands. Specifically, will it mean a loss of their sovereignty and resources and having to decide where their people go from there? The Insular Area Climate Change Act of 2021 discussion draft seeks to address these threats by creating an interagency task force to identify ways to provide greater access to climate-change- related Federal programs to U.S. territories, establish an Office of Insular Area Energy Policy and Programs within the Department of Energy to centralize and expand Federal energy programs in insular areas, and to create multiple grant programs to invest in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure in the insular areas. Climate change is real, and 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. We must all do our work to reverse this trend, which we aim to do through the work of this Committee. The Insular Area Climate Change Act and the other bills we are seeking to get enacted this year will provide some of the additional tools we will need to begin to address climate change. Thank you. With that, let me now turn to the Ranking Member for comments.