Gabriella Hoffman

I’m Thrilled to Be a 2025 Club for Growth Foundation Fellow

Gabriella Hoffman — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 02:58:59 +0000

I’m kicking off 2025 with a new year-long fellowship opportunity. I’m among the 50 conservative professionals selected for Club for Growth Foundation’s 2025 Fellowship Class.

This year-long fellowship brings together public policy analysts, elected officials, nonprofit and business leaders who champion free market principles, economic freedom, and limited government. More broadly, the Fellowship Program “educates public and private sector leaders with a firm understanding of first principles; empowers them with the communications skills to become effective leaders; and engages them with an enduring network of like-minded leaders.”

Here's my fellowship bio page.

With the conservative movement flirting with tenets of populism, it’s imperative to keep timeless principles and related policies alive. We can appeal to new constituencies without betraying our values. My hope with the fellowship is to craft better arguments in favor of traditional conservation viewpoints under the three-legged stool model that encompasses fiscal conservatism.

I. Fellowships Defined

Fellowships are programs that are geared towards personal and professional development. They can be short-term or long-term. These programs cross industries, age groups, and experience levels–not just for college or graduate students.

As a mid-career professional on track to one day be a high-career professional, fellowships gave me a needed boost in my career. When I was building my freelance business, I hit a slump. I was acquiring new skills beyond copywriting and public relations, but something was missing. I didn’t feel challenged enough and wanted new experiences to

Benefits of fellowship include forging meaningful connections, gaining new skills, solving complex questions, and challenging yourself to new experiences.

Middle English felaweschipe, going back to Old English fēolagscipe, from fēolaga fellow + -scipe -ship
Merriam Webster Dictionary

II. The Value of Fellowships

The Club for Growth Foundation Fellowship isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve successfully completed two long-term fellowships and several short-term seminars (aka “mini fellowships”). One fellowship even evolved into my current job as director of IWF’s Center for Energy and Conservation.

Forbes Magazine argued in 2020 that fellowships are the future of learning and development:

Fellowships are a model for leadership development that achieve exactly those win-win-wins, for professionals, their employers, and society around them; fellowships create impact on the Me, We, and World Levels. Fellowships are ideally suited to professionals’ most pressing 2020 needs: connectivity, inclusion, collaboration, innovation, and resilience. They are flexible in terms of time and content for the participants, effective at building authentic relationships among peers, and are highly cost effective for employers.

The article said these three pillars of an effective fellowship:

Self-paced, multimedia learning and reflection
Live inputs with experts
Peer reflection and accountability

Round-Up

This new fellowship means there is no change to my work schedule. I can participate concurrently with my full-time job at IWF and my various freelance contracts.

Cheers to an enriching year as a Club for Growth Foundation Fellow!

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2024: A Wild, Wonderful Whirlwind Year

Gabriella Hoffman — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 16:23:01 +0000

2024 was a wild and wonderful whirlwind year. I apologize for not updating my website more often. You can see more current happenings on my Substack. I’ll make it a priority to do monthly updates here going forward.

This year brought amazing opportunities like testifying before Congress for the first time and being appointed to a board by my Governor. I’m lucky to be at the apex of my career as a policy director.

But I also succeeded in having a work-life balance and being more present. I strived to be a loyal friend, attentive colleague, and good listener to those around me. I learned that taking multiple 10,000+ step hikes/walks a week is a good for the soul, your waistline, and a necessary escape.

I traveled to Europe again to rediscover my Lithuanian roots and visited three new countries (Netherlands, Poland, Denmark). I met some incredible people and wasn’t afraid to be spontaneous. I won’t wait 25 years to travel across the pond again!

I didn’t fish or hunt nearly enough, but I caught my personal best largemouth bass, harvested my first dove, polished my fly fishing skills, and graduated to intermediate mushroom hunter.

To those who shared some of their 2024 with me, thank you for the memories and good laughs. Let’s do it again next year.

I’m optimistic about the future and for what lies ahead in 2025. I hope you feel the same way, too.

Happy New Year! The best is yet to come.

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WEX: Net-zero policies drive up household appliance costs

Gabriella Hoffman — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 21:11:01 +0000

Energy efficiency standards should be crafted with consumers in mind. But the Biden administration’s net-zero energy agenda is already driving up the costs of common household appliances.

Some estimates suggest Americans are paying 34% more for appliances compared to 15 years ago. Recent Department of Energy rulemaking targeting more than 15 consumer appliances under the guise of updating the Energy Policy and Conservation Act standards could drive costs even higher.

Equally alarming is a recent revelation that DOE is outsourcing rulemaking authority to “stakeholders,” including radical environmentalists and liberal billionaires eager to dictate what appliances people should own.

Back in April, the DOE announced its new rule on residential water heaters, effective May 2029. The agency claims pivoting from models using electric resistance technology to electric heat pump water heaters will save consumers $1,800 on bills through the lifetime of the appliance and reportedly slash “332 million metric tons” of carbon dioxide.

Continue reading at Washington Examiner.

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Townhall: Conservative Conservationism and Duck Calling with Chairman Westerman

Gabriella Hoffman — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 16:31:30 +0000

Visiting House Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) at his Capitol Hill office during President Trump’s D.C. trip proved eventful.

Anytime I interview conservative conservationists, wild things happen. I saw a black bear with Congressman and former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, I also spoke to Senator Steve Daines in Grizzly Country. So it was no surprise to see Westerman channel his inner waterfowler.

Pre-interview, he picked up a gavel that doubled as a duck call and demonstrated his calling prowess to me and his staff. Let’s say he could rival some champion duck callers.

Naturally, the lone registered forester in Congress is animated about conservation policy. His committee goes on both offense proposing smart bills and on defense responding to onerous Biden administration rulemaking, respectively.

“Some call it oversight; it seems more like whack-a-mole,” he told me.

He quipped, “I sometimes wonder if they’ve got a committee over there that sits around thinking up things to get us worked up because they’re doing a pretty good job of it. They give us a lot of opportunities to have oversight to push back on regulations that we can’t see any logic behind them, or what the benefit of it is.”

Continue reading at Townhall.com

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Townhall: Preserving the ‘Farm’ in Farm Bill

Gabriella Hoffman — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 16:32:12 +0000

On Tuesday, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member John Boozman (R-AR) unveiled his long-anticipated Farm Bill framework.

The Farm Bill, legislation was due for reauthorization last year, got a year-long extension through September 2024. It covers commodities, forestry, conservation, nutrition, and rural development. The House Agriculture Chairman Glenn (GT) Thompson unveiled the House framework several weeks ago.

“From the onset of this process, we have sought to draft a farm bill that reflects the needs of stakeholders. The world has changed dramatically since the 2018 bill became law, and the unprecedented challenges and economic uncertainty that farmers face now are only projected to get worse in the coming years,” Boozman said in a statement. “This is why producers have been calling on senators to put more farms in the farm bill.”

Key priorities in the Senate Republican framework, which borrows largely from the House’s, include modernizing the “farm safety net,” boosting rural and broadband services, expanding popular conservation programs, and “empowering” the next generation of farmers.

Continue reading at Townhall.com

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RealClear Energy: EPA’s Clean Power Plan Rule Prioritizes Net-Zero Over Grid Reliability

Gabriella Hoffman — Mon, 20 May 2024 16:34:30 +0000

Coal and natural gas plants provide 60% of the U.S.’ affordable, reliable, and baseload power. In a time of increased electricity demand, America needs to double down on harnessing these sources—not abandon them.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s recently finalized Clean Power Plan 2.0 (CPP) rule, however, takes the country in the wrong direction. Under this regulation, one that is arguably illegal, existing coal and new natural gas power plants will be mandated to install emissions control technologies that aren’t yet commercially viable. Plants that don’t comply risk permanent closure. This unrealistic mandate is advanced under the guise of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 90% by 2032.

The Biden administration should nix this rule altogether given its many drawbacks to the American economy, all of which come with no environmental gain and are based on dubious authority. If it doesn’t reverse course, a forthcoming Congressional resolution of disapproval and newly-filed lawsuits could stop overreach here.

Continue reading at RealClear Energy.

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KINUTE: Virginia Hatchery Wants to Hook People on Eating Trout

Gabriella Hoffman — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 16:46:10 +0000

There’s a trout revival currently underway in Virginia’s Western Highlands that’s getting notice in and outside of the Old Dominion State. And for good reason.

An independent hatchery situated 30 miles northwest of Roanoke, Virginia is taking the culinary world by storm with its unique trout offerings. The former 1930s-era Department of Interior facility is also fostering a new appreciation for the brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis)—Virginia’s official state fish and sole native trout species.

Smoke in Chimneys is an agribusiness just three years into operation. Due to growing demand for the product, the small business is expected to raise upwards of 50,000 trout this year to sell directly to followers and some of the Mid-Atlantic region’s top rated restaurants—including a Michelin-rated restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The upstart small business not only desires to raise and sell premium trout, but help change American perceptions about farm-raised trout and related aguaculture industry. Their commitment to regenerative farming practices and conservation stewardship practices has not only won them customers, but praise from outdoor brands like Filson and YETI.

Kinute caught up with Ty Walker, one half of Smoke in Chimneys, during his recent visit to the Washington, D.C. area to learn more about the operation.

Continue reading at KINUTE.

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DC Examiner: Outdoorsy women are not gender confused

Gabriella Hoffman — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:17:00 +0000

Comedian and actor W.C. Fields famously mused, “Marry an outdoorswoman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive.”

This Women’s History Month, however, women who recreate outdoors have been deemed insufficiently female for displaying so-called “tomboy” tendencies. Vile attacks were lobbed at outdoor influencer and avid noodler Hannah Barron, who boasts millions of followers across social media. One X user said Barron is “filth” for wrangling catfish and boasting a southern drawl. Another commenter claimed outdoorsy “tomboys” such as Barron suffer from mental illness and gender confusion.

As an avid outdoorswoman who, like Barron, also fishes and hunts, I take great offense to this wildly inaccurate caricature.

Continue reading at Washington Examiner.

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December 2023 Updates: Articles, Media, & Podcasts

Gabriella Hoffman — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 16:46:04 +0000

To streamline my content better, I’ll post monthly roundups of content – podcasts, articles, media appearances/mentions – to put everything you might have missed in one place. Here’s where I published or participated in during the month of December 2023.

District Of Conservation Podcasts

Media Mentions

This month, I was interviewed by several podcasts, radio stations, and local TV programs: The Sportsmen’s Voice podcast hosted by Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Heard at Heritage/Power Hour, Fox 5 DC, The Tony Katz Show, and O’Connor and Company on WMAL News.