Energy & Environment

Right now, a congressional conference committee is attempting to reconcile transportation bills passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives that could upgrade our crumbling infrastructure, save 1.9 million jobs, and create 1 million more. However, the bill remains in negotiations. House Republicans haven’t been able to reach an agreement on their own transportation bill –voting instead to temporarily extend the current one. They’re now bringing the same tactics that caused the House version to fail to the conference committee, complicating negotiations with extraneous issues, such as the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. This contentious add-on needlessly burdens negotiations and passage of the bill, but also reveals the depth of the Republican’s Keystone XL obsession.

Colorado’s natural beauty draws visitors from around the world. Every day, we see the clear connection between the health of our citizens, the health of our environment, and the health of our economy. Unfortunately, national public debate is often dominated by the claim that we must choose between a clean environment and economic prosperity -- the idea being that protecting our environment will jeopardize U.S. businesses and job creation. Well, this simply isn’t true.
 
The EPA’s recently proposed carbon pollution standard shows how the correct balance can be struck. The new rule won’t just limit dangerous industrial carbon pollution from new power plants, it will encourage a market-based transition to a clean-energy economy, one that boosts investment and creates jobs nationwide.

As the House again proposes barring enforcement of the current energy efficiency standards for lighting products, it puts American manufacturers and the public at risk of wasting money and losing jobs, while also tacitly encouraging the illegal import of noncompliant, energy-hogging products.
 
The law to phase in energy-saving lighting options, enacted in 2007, began taking effect this past January with standards requiring a minimum 27% increase in the efficiency of 100-watt bulbs. In the process of investing millions of dollars in producing a variety of such bulbs, American manufacturers have also been creating jobs for their design and production in Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, California and other states.

With North American oil production ramping up, many have rushed to the conclusion that the United States has newfound oil security. The dark days of dependence on the Middle East will soon be gone as new types of oil are found in abundance close to home. But these claims are more hype than reality.
 
The deeper we drill down, the more apparent it becomes that new domestic oil supplies cannot guarantee U.S. geopolitical and economic security. What’s more, the heterogeneous assortment of oils, if pursued absent cautious, deliberate guidelines, could cause collateral damage.

As a retired underground coal miner from southeastern Kentucky, I have watched as many of my old retired coal mining friends have had to move away to places like Florida for their health.  Instead of relocating to Florida, I have traveled to Washington D.C. this week to try to protect the health of my grandchildren.

I live in Harlan County, Kentucky, which is represented by the chairman of the Appropriations Committee; Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.)  During his time in office, he has helped us get a number one rating. The Kentucky 5th Congressional District ranks first for mountaintop removal – more than 60% of mountaintop removal is here. But we remain last in nearly everything else.

For two weeks, a massive fire has burned nearly 200,000 acres in the Gila Wilderness and National Forest. This blaze, known as the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire, began by a lightning strike, and is well on its way to becoming the worst fire in our state’s history.
 
We appreciate the heroic efforts of the more than 1,000 personnel battling this inferno. These heroes put their lives on the line to help others, and show us what it truly means to be a public servant.

We once again find ourselves at the start of the Atlantic Hurricane season. Last year, Americans spanning the eastern seaboard experienced the impacts of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. Many communities in the northeast are still working to recover from those storms.
 
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting a “near normal” hurricane season this year, with a 70 percent chance of nine to 15 named storms, we have already seen two named storms before the season has even started. The time to prepare for hurricanes, or any natural disasters, is now.

Last week was bleak for public health and the environment: Gregory Jaczko, who has presided as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since the Fukushima Daiichi reactor disaster began in March 2011, has resigned. Dr. Jaczko, alone among his fellow commissioners, has insisted no new nuclear power plant should be licensed unless and until the operator has committed to making safety upgrades needed to protect against the risk of severe accidents such as occurred at Fukushima. His resignation throws into question whether the NRC will have the fortitude to complete advances commenced under his leadership. 
 
As attorneys who represent environmental groups, civic groups, and neighbors of proposed nuclear power plants in NRC licensing cases, we have watched the NRC’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident with concern. From the outset of the accident, Dr. Jaczko took actions that were unpopular with the nuclear industry and his fellow commissioners but showed a strong commitment to protecting public health and safety. In the first hours of the accident, he prudently recommended the evacuation of all U.S. citizens living within 50 miles of Fukushima, even though U.S. regulations call for evacuation within only ten miles. His judgment later proved sound.

With the presidential and congressional races approaching full swing, the American people are being bombarded with one campaign slogan after another. The problem is that peppering voters with clever catchphrases in stump speeches and television ads does nothing to secure America’s energy or economic future.

With outrageous gasoline prices being matched only by the nation’s troubling unemployment rate, it is time for Republicans and Democrats to dispense with the political jockeying and get serious about an energy policy that can improve the lives of all American families.

The good news is that there is plenty of common ground on which to build a principled compromise.

Thanks to weak enemies and economic austerity, the U.S. nuclear triad—the ability to deliver nuclear weapons with land and submarine based ballistic missiles and bomber aircraft— is getting wobbly. As Congress struggles to squeeze the defense budget under self-imposed caps, it should embrace proposals, like the one just offered by the former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James Cartwright, to scrap either the bomber leg or land missile leg of triad and reduce the others’ size. That would save billions annually without sacrificing security.

The triad grew from bureaucratic compromise, not strategic necessity. After World War II, nukes seemed like the weapon of the future. The Air Force saw their delivery as part of the strategic bombing mission that had just given their service independence. Their ownership of that mission, and eventually land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, won them budget share at the expense of other services. The Navy, eager to avoid a becoming something like a transoceanic bus service, found an ingenious way to get into the nuclear game: they put missiles on submarines.