mr. casten for five minutes. mr. casten: thank you, madam chair. thank you to our witnesses. i must say, part of this whole hearing that makes me very sad. it makes me sad because pre-covid, i think the three biggest days for single day mortality events in the united states were 9/11 and nearly 3,000 people, katrina, 1,800. and third is the 1995 chicago heat wave that killed people. so much that dr. shandas is saying, this is nothing new. in 1995, the people who died were the least among us. it was people who couldn't afford air conditioning, people who didn't have social networks checking in on them. since that time, inequality has increased. since 1991 we've emitted 50% of the co-2 we ever emitted as a species since we learned how to make a fire a million years ago. we're talking a good game but future generations will ask our feet and ask if we moved. i'm sorry to be saddened and bring us down. i'm sad. dr. shandas, i want to ask you, the university of chicago, the epic energy policy institute has done this really interesting work. i'm sure you're familiar with on the soci

mr. casten: -- financial loss. mr. casten:mr. casten: i am out of time and your back. >> thank you, madam chair. i appreciate you recognizing me. i appreciate the chair holding this hearing. thanks to the witnesses. i come from michigan. northern part of my district is home to the huron forest. it is 737 plus acres over 70 miles. it is named after a native american tribe local to our region. the forest landscape is highly prone to seasonal fires, dominated by jack pines which are highly file mobile. -- flammables. pinecones from those jack pines contain seeds only open as a result of a fire. the curtain worbler, a great little songbird, only breeds in those young jack pines. as a result of logging in the forest and the habitat was nearly completely destroyed. that bird was almost completely extinct. 50 years later, due to burns, and the protectant's put in place by the law, the warbler was removed from the endangered species list. now, each year, literally thousands of tourists come to that part of rural michigan to see the kirtla

mr. casten, for five minutes. . mr. casten: i trust most of my colleagues heard of the hot summer. i rise today to declare the start of hot ferc summer, with ferc being the federal regulatory commission. why? to pair phase, now that ferc has put in all that work it's time for them tonight m.v.p. some might say that ferc isn't, dare i say, hot enough to warrant that attention. but for those of us serious about fighting the climate crisis, they should be. the commission ensures our energy markets, generation, and transmission operating and profiding us with affordable energy. the best kept secret of all is ferc is absolutely key-to-cheefing our clean energy goals and zero carbon economy. for the last few decades, ferc's biggest push has been to encourage competition in the power sector. ferc order 888 which celebrated its 25th birthday a few months ago, may not have cracked the billboard top 100 but it's been almost singularly responsible for decarbonizing our electric sector. incentivizing lower cost gas, nuclear energy, it drove the private sector to drastically lower their greenho

mr. casten. without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. casten: i rise to continue our celebration of hot ferk summer, as climate activist fergie would say, it is to make our climate cooler. so the federal energy regulatory commission, better known to the f to the e to the r to the c is one of the most important making changes. having a well air-conditioned home when it's hot, hot, that's fercalicious. an elect trick transmission -- an electric transmission running with zero carbon transmission, fercalicious. wildfires and overwhelmed power grids, we have run out the clock and must transition to a clean energy and we need ferc's help. i introduced a bill to make sure everyone has fair and timely hearings at the commission but congress can't do this alone. moving at the pace due to the climate crisis must take a fully staffed ferc will be critical to that success. thank you, madam speaker, i will yield back so i can now go work on my fitness. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >>

mr. casten for five minutes. >> thank you so much really wanv to thank you for doing this hearing. you been tweeting on thisg for a long time mr. potter and we wouldn't be doing this but for your leadership so thank you. what to direct my questions to ms. renieris. the first is over the last couple years there's been talk about google and facebook and talked about introducing a digital driver's license digitization of your driver's license on mobile apps. do you have any ethical concerns with essentially a private digital id supplanting a government managed digital id? >> thank you very much for the question, congressman. so this is an issue i looked in my testament and i go into more depth in my written testimony. what apple and google are basically done is created digital infrastructures to post a digitized version of your government issued driver's d license for your analog, you know, physical id.'s it's quite telling that what they said is not a native id but rather a digital version of those artifacts that we are all used to. that's an important distinction. it is true that ver

mr. casten is recognized. >> thank you madam chair, and to our witnesses. doctor clements, i'd like to start with you and one of the things that struck me is the hardest thing to deal with on climate change sociologically is there's -- we do a bad job of anticipating accelerating trends. obviously that contributes to the increasing numbers and severity of wildfires that we've seen. if you look at wildfire science as you try to project what's going to happen over the next 5:10 years are there major irregularly through feedback making it worse or that might dampen with respect to wildfire signs that we should be thinking of on the expectation that we aren't anticipating those things will either? >> thank you for the question, congressman. in terms of climate change and feedback. as we change, as the environment gets warmer, we will change the fuel structures. we are going to change the landscape that can impact for the better at times different types of fuel structures. so we can convert forests to grasslands. that could lessen the extreme fire but make it mo

mr. casten is recognized. >> thank you, madam chair, and thank you to our witnesses. dr.ment, i'd like to start with you and one of the things that's always sort of struck me as theal hardest thing to deal with on climate change sews logically is there is all these nonlisten yartees and we do a bad job of anticipation accelerating trends. obviously thatfi contributes to the increasing numbers and severity of wildfires that we've seen but if you look just at wildfire science as t you try t predict what's going to happen over the next five, ten years are there major nonlisten yarts either feedback loops making it worse or that might damp it with respect to wildfire science that we might think of on the anticipation that we are probably not anticipation those things pretty well, either? >> thank you for your question, congressman.as yeah, so in terms of climate change and feedback loops as we change -- as the environment getsat warmer we are going to change the fuel structures, we're going to change our landscapes so thatue that can impact maybe for the better at times diffe