Environment Hearings In D And R Congresses

By Abigail Mihaly

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It's no secret that Republicans and Democrats talk about climate, energy, and the environment differently.

During a speech to the United Nations last fall, President Donald Trump called climate change "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world.”

As Trump promotes climate change denial, many other Republicans argue policymakers should prioritize solving other global issues above climate change. By contrast, some Democratic lawmakers argue Congress must focus on decarbonizing the U.S. economy as a top issue. Democratic lawmakers, such as longtime climate advocate Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), call climate change a "crisis" and an "existential threat."

And yet — despite serious disagreement over whether and how to address climate change — Congress, regardless of which party controls, must make policy about energy and the environment. Four House committees are charged with most environmental issues: the House Energy and Commerce, House Natural Resources, Senate Environment and Public Works and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committees. They continue the daily work of holding meetings, listening to expert witnesses, and considering legislation.

Examining the titles of these committees’ hearings is a great proxy to consider: how do Democrats versus Republicans talk about and prioritize these issues?

Here are the most common phrases each party used to title Congressional hearings in the last decade.

I've stripped out places, people and the titles of bills. Here are the top phrases reflecting themes or topics of committee conversation.

“Climate change” appears only on Democrats’ list.

Many Republicans do not dispute the existance of climate change, but argue it isn't a top issue. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, who is in charge of policies about natural resources, says the U.S. should do everything it can to build more data centers to power artificial intelligence, pushing back on arguments from the left that AI’s power consumption is a major problem because of its potential to worsen climate change.

“The real existential threat right now is not a degree of climate change,” Burgum told Politico's E&E News. “It’s the fact that we could lose the AI arms race if we don’t have enough power.”

Republicans' list of top terms doesn't include "renewable energy." Republicans generally prioritize fossil energy over wind and solar. Some types of energy have drawn support from both sides of the aisle, like nuclear and hydropower. The term "electricity" also appears on the Democrat's top term list, but not Republicans', reflecting Democrats' push for electricity-based energy like electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Meanwhile, the term "natural resources" appears higher on Republicans' list of top terms. Natural resources includes fuel or minerals extracted from the earth, like natural gas.

But like Republicans, Demcorats are also naming their committee meetings with the term often enough to make the list. Mineral withdrawal also appears in Democrat committee hearing titles.

Moving beyond energy types, Democrats frequently use phrases about community and local perspectives that are absent from Republicans' list. For example, the then Democrat-controlled House Natural Resources Committee held a 2020 meeting titled “Environmental Justice for Coastal Communities: Examining Inequities in Federal Grantmaking.”

Terms like "environmental justice" are increasingly criticized by the Right. As part of his anti-DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) crusade, Trump has targeted programs, agency offices, and grants with such terms. In March 2025, the Environmetnal Projection Agency announced it “cancelled grants and contracts related to DEI and environmental justice.” A federal judge reinstated them in June, 2026. "Diversity" also makes the Democrats' list, but does not feature among Republicans' top phrases.

But although the term "communities" does not appear on the list of most common title phrases under Republican rule, references to Indian land and peoples do feature. Also, "Indigenous communitites" is used more frequently than "Indians" in Democrat-controlled congresses.

In Republican congresses, meanwhile, wildlife-related terms are more common than in Democrat-related Congresses.

This fits with conservatives' longstanding ethos of outdoorsmanship and conservation. Rep. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah and chair of the conservative climate caucus, for example, frequently seeks to connect with conservative constituents by talking about going walking and fishing. "One of my long-term goals is to have every Republican talking about being good stewards, leaving this Earth better than we found it," Curtis told The Cool Down. "And in truth, I think we always have, but we talk about it in a different way," Curtis told The Cooldown in 2023.

Simply looking at phrase frequency may not tell the whole story. It can remove context. For example, frequency of the word "endangered" may not only indicate bills to protect wildlife. In the context of Congressional hearing titles, "endangered" often refers to the Endangered Species Act. Some Republican-led committee meetings with the word "endangered" in the title offer bills that would increase the hurdles to list an endangered species.

Still, the trends found in environment committee Congressional hearings show clear differences in how the two major parties talk about environmental issues: Democrats say climate change is an existential threat requiring investment in clean energy now. They focus on the community-level impacts of both climate change and traditional pollution. Republicans, meanwhile, dismiss or downplay climate issues, focusing instead on traditional conservation while supporting industrial and fossil fuel development.