President Obama won glowing praise this morning from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) for directing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider its 2007 decision not to let California set higher vehicle emissions standards for its state.
The California Republican said the decision shows that California and environmental law "now have a strong ally in the White House."
"With this announcement from President Obama less than a week into his administration, it is clear that California and the environment now have a strong ally in the White House. Allowing California and other states to aggressively reduce their own harmful vehicle tailpipe emissions would be a historic win for clean air and for millions of Americans who want more fuel-efficient, environmentally-friendly cars," Schwarzenegger said in a statement issued by his office.
"My administration has been fighting for this waiver since 2005 and we will not give up until it is granted because we owe it to our children and to our grandchildren to do more than just protect our natural resources, we must also work to improve them so that we leave behind an environment for future generations that is better than it is today," the governor continued.
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President-elect Barack Obama today told the Governors' Global Summit on Climate Change, hosted in Los Angeles by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), that his presidency will usher in a new era of U.S. leadership on climate change.
"My presidency will mark a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process," Obama told the conference via videotaped message. "Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change."
The U.S. government will continue to release oil from the nation's strategic reserves upon requests from oil companies in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, President Bush said today.
"Last night we got a request from a company doing business here in Louisiana and we met that request...So oil was released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
It is too early to tell what damage Hurricane Gustav has done to Gulf Coast energy infrastructure, President Bush told reporters at the White House today before he and cabinet officials were briefed on how the gulf's energy infrastructure fared in the storm.
"We're now in the process of assessing any damage done to the infrastructure and what -- it's a little early right now to come up with a solid assessment," Bush said.
Bush said early signs indicate the damage will not be as severe as that done by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
MoveOn.org has started a petition asking members to back Al Gore's plan for an end to U.S. electricity plants that produce carbon emissions.
"America must commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from cheap, clean renewable energy sources, like solar and wind, within 10 years," reads the petition, which was e-mailed to MoveOn members Tuesday.
The e-mail featured a message from Gore, who laid out his energy plan last week. He wrote that 150,000 people have already signed the petition.
"As I said on Thursday, this is a generational moment," Gore wrote. "A moment when we decide our own path and our collective fate. I'm asking you
The federal government has opened up 3.9 million acres of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) for oil and gas drilling, giving oil companies more land to lease as political pressure mounts for expanded domestic production.
Oil companies will be able to obtain leases in October, according to the Bureau of Land Management, which announced the decision yesterday.
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne praised the decision as a move to alleviate high gasoline prices.
"The rapid increase in energy costs facing our nation is driven by a worldwide imbalance in energy supply and demand,
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today lashed out at President Bush's decision to lift the executive ban on new offshore oil drilling, calling the president "the oilman in the White House" and reiterating criticisms of the GOP's energy platform.
"Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil," Pelosi said."The Bush plan is a hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas."
Bush owned an oil and gas company in Midland, Texas after graduating Harvard business school in 1975.
Pelosi has recently stressed that oil companies are not drilling on millions of acres they already lease, making the point to attack GOP proposals for more drilling off U.S. coasts and in Alaska.
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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced it would limit the trading of oil futures after a bipartisan group of senators called for such a measure earlier this month.
Democratic and Republican senators had alleged that futures speculation has helped to drive up the price of oil.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), one of the senators who led the call, lauded the decision today in a press release.
According to Rasmussen, 67 percent of Americans support oil drilling off the nation's coasts and 64 percent think it will lower gas prices.
House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-Ohio) office circulated the poll today as House Republicans push drilling as their solution to high gas prices.
The federal government prohibits offshore drilling, and Republicans have called for the ban to be lifted. Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) will offer an amendment to lift the ban tomorrow at an Appropriations Committee markup, the leadership office said.
Republicans have accused Democrats of inaction on gas prices, while House Democrats have blamed oil companies and market manipulation for high prices. House Dems have passed legislation to create a Department of Justice task force to investigate and prosecute oil cartels, and Democratic senators have called for regulation of oil futures speculation.
Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 "likely voters" on June 13 for the poll.
Congressmen whose districts border the Mississippi River are bracing for floods as tides that have ravaged Iowa and Minnesota in the past week start to head south.
Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) met with volunteers today in his western Illinois district, holding a press conference with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and local officials to address the threat.
Rep. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.), whose district borders Hare's across the river, is preparing a front-page section of his website to give constituents up-to-date information on the flooding, an idea his office got from Rep. Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), according to Hulshof Legislative Director Aaron Smith.
Hulshof, who maintains a farm eight miles from the river, has a staffer in contact with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Association, Smith said.
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