E2 Morning Roundup: Poll to show support for green cars, pipeline accidents spur push for Hill action, averting a water crisis, California climate politics, and much more

On tap Thursday: New poll to show consumers want efficient cars

The Mellman Group, a major Democratic polling firm, will unveil a green group-backed survey of voters’ views on auto efficiency and pollution.

The poll was commissioned by four groups – the Union of Concerned Scientists, NRDC, the Sierra Club and Environment America – that are pushing for a big jump in federal mileage standards.

Voters want 60 mpg – and they’ll pay for it

Here’s a preview of the results: 74 percent of likely voters favor having “the federal government require the auto industry to increase average fuel efficiency…to 60 miles per gallon by the year 2025,” according to a sneak peak provided to The Hill.

“Sixty-six percent of respondents still supported the idea even if it added $3,000 to the price of a new car. Support for the policy increased to 83 percent when respondents were asked to consider if an additional $3,000 cost was recouped in four years through savings at the pump,” according to a summary.

The poll comes as the Transportation Department and EPA have begun work on a joint rulemaking to set combined mileage and carbon emissions standards for model years 2017 and beyond.

On tap Thursday II: X marks the spot for Pelosi

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will speak Thursday at the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE Awards Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The X PRIZE is an Energy Department-backed program that will award $10 million total to as many as three teams racing to create a super-duper efficient car. The vehicles must get the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon and “survive grueling real-world safety, efficiency, emissions, durability and range tests,” according to the big auto insurer’s website about its program.

On tap Thursday III: House to vote on rural energy efficiency bill

Sweeping energy bills aren’t moving on Capitol Hill. But some small measures are. The House will consider the Rural Energy Savings Program Act Thursday.

It allows the Agriculture Department to make loans to rural public and cooperative power companies, which in turn would offer low-interest loans to customers to support energy efficiency measures.

Pipeline accidents fuel legislative push

It has been a bad few weeks for pipeline safety.

An Enbridge, Inc. oil pipeline ruptured in Michigan in July, spilling roughly 1 million gallons, and oil reached the Kalamazoo River. And last week a natural gas pipeline blast in San Bruno, California killed at least four people and destroyed several dozen homes.

The Transportation Department on Wednesday rolled out proposed legislation to beef up safety enforcement and penalties.

“The nation’s pipelines, our energy highways, are by far the safest way to quickly transport large volumes of fuels and other hazardous liquids over long distances,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “However, as the recent oil pipeline failures near Marshall, Mich., and Romeoville, Ill., have shown, as well as the tragic gas pipeline explosion in Northern California, the Department needs stronger authority to ensure the continued safety and reliability of our nation’s pipeline network.”

The bill would increase the max civil penalty from $1 million to $2.5 million for the most serious violations and authorize another 40 inspection and enforcement personnel over four years, and close some regulatory “gaps,” according to the department.

Feinstein, Boxer, Oberstar vow pipeline safety action

California Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) and Barbara Boxer (D) said Wednesday evening that they will soon float legislation that draws from LaHood’s plan.

“We are going over the legislation proposed today by Secretary LaHood very carefully, will retain the best parts, and introduce it as quickly as possible,” Feinstein said in a statement.

Across the Capitol, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) said Wednesday at a hearing on the Enbridge spill that he will also seek to move legislation forward this year.

Landrieu to promote Gulf of Mexico drilling at hearing

Look for the Obama administration’s post-BP spill restrictions on offshore drilling to come under bipartisan attack Thursday.

The Senate Small Business Committee will hold a hearing on the economic effects of the Obama administration’s six-month freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling. Two Commerce Department officials will appear.

But look for Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the panel’s chair, to also criticize the slowdown in permitting for shallow water projects that are not covered by the formal moratorium.

“I'm doing everything I can to get this moratorium lifted – both the deepwater, which is the official moratorium, and the de facto moratorium which is on shallow water,” Landrieu told reporters earlier this week.

Charting the slowdown

Landrieu will likely highlight the reduction in the number of new shallow water wells that Interior Department regulators have approved over the last several months, such as data showing just two wells approved in waters less than 400 feet in August of 2010 compared to seven in August of 2009.

“This administration's policies are causing a substantial economic disaster along the Gulf Coast and in some parts of the country and it needs to be reversed or substantially modified as quickly as possible,” she said.

The Interior Department doesn’t deny a slowdown in shallow water development, but says that’s happening because drillers must provide new information under safety mandates issued in June.

Offshore industry to Obama administration: Do your part on offshore platform mandate

As we reported Wednesday, the Interior Department is requiring offshore energy companies to permanently plug unused oil-and-gas wells and dismantle idle platforms.

The National Ocean Industries Association said sure, but help us help you.

“While industry stands ready to fulfill this commitment, it can only do so with the cooperation of State and Federal agencies.  For example, will the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration commit to prompt review and approval of the Incidental Take permits needed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act before companies can actually decommission a platform? Will the Administration work with the states to finalize Rigs-to-Reefs Programs so that decommissioned structures might find a second life as habitats for offshore ecosystems?,” said Randall Luthi, the group’s president, in a prepared statement.

“Industry is ready to meet its obligations with respect to offshore structures. We ask only that the Federal government meet us halfway by approving the actual work,” he added.

Al Gore: Still no fan of coal

Amid dueling pro-coal and anti-coal events on Capitol Hill, Al Gore is reminding us which side he’s on. “There is a very real and immediate human impact from the burning of fossil fuels,” Gore wrote on his website Wednesday, highlighting a Clean Air Task Force report this month that power plant pollution will lead to 13,200 premature deaths in 2010.

Businesses, greens issue joint ‘call to action’ on water

A new report says the U.S. is heading toward a “freshwater crisis” absent better policies and planning to meet the competing demands of farming, cities, rural areas, energy and other uses.

The report released Wednesday is the joint, two-year product of groups that don’t always see eye-to-eye, including mining giant Rio Tinto, the Union of Concerned Scientists, as well as agriculture industry officials and a range of other experts convened by the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread.

“In spite of the challenges we face, we see a promising future for U.S. freshwater resources – a future that is sustainable and resilient. Streamlined and effective regulation and enforcement, collaborative problem solving, innovative local and regional strategies, technological innovation, integrated policy and management solutions, and co-beneficial strategies and outcomes are the hallmarks of the new course we see for freshwater management and resources in the United States,” the report states.

A diverse panel

Representatives of the water panel also included officials from Mars, Inc., the Interior Department and other agencies, the Water Environment Federation and others. Its recommendations include improving existing tools like the Clean Water Act; a “full throttle” effort to develop improved technologies on supply and demand; better integrating water management and energy policy (power plants and oil-and-gas development uses lots of water); better data collection and a host of other ideas.

Representatives of the panel met with the White House Council on Environmental Quality Wednesday about the report.

BP’s Hayward: Failure to stem oil gusher was ‘unacceptable’

The oil giant’s departing CEO faced the music in the U.K Wednesday.

The Associated Press reports:

“Outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward said Wednesday that he understands the anger directed at the energy giant in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but he insisted that his company had a strong safety record and was not solely to blame for the disaster.”

“Testifying before a British parliamentary committee, Hayward acknowledged that BP had failed both to stop the spill and to plan adequately to respond to an accident of that scale.”

“’I understand why people feel the way they do, and there is little doubt that the inability of BP, and the industry, to intervene to seal the leak . . . was unacceptable,’ he said.”

Final seal on BP’s well could come soon

“With BP close to intercepting its stricken Gulf of Mexico well with a relief well, the government said Wednesday that the final sealing of the once-gushing well might occur this weekend,” the New York Times reports.

“Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who is leading the federal response effort, said in a briefing in Kenner, La., that the relief well was within 25 feet of the interception point, nearly 13,000 feet below the seabed.”

Head of refiners trade group rips Schwarzenegger

The Sacramento Bee checks in on climate politics getting nasty in California. Oil refiners are pouring money into the ballot fight to kill that state’s emissions law.

“The head of an oil industry trade group described California's landmark climate change law as ‘political correctness gone mad’ and said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears ‘hell bent on becoming a real life Terminator’ to the refining industry,” the Bee reports.

“In an e-mail letter sent Tuesday to members of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, Charles Drevna, the group's president, said passage of Proposition 23, the ballot initiative that aims to roll back the state's greenhouse gas reduction law, is key to stopping climate change laws in other states and would mean ‘the difference of life and death’ for the oil industry.”

U.S. to host big climate meeting in New York

Reuters looks at the upcoming meeting of the Major Economies Forum:

“The United States will host a meeting of the world's biggest economies in New York to discuss climate change on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said.”

“The Major Economies Forum will bring together 16 of the world's biggest economies next week with the 27-nation European Union to haggle over ways to fight global warming. It was formed to augment U.N. climate change talks. A deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions has so far eluded negotiators within the U.N. process.”

In case you missed it

E2 posts Wednesday included:

Interior requires permanent plugs for idle offshore oil-and-gas wells

NOAA: First eight-month period ties global heat record

EPA scuttles Bush-era voluntary climate program

Greens launch new campaign to protect EPA climate regs

Levin presses Obama to ‘promptly investigate’ China on green energy

Groups unify push for renewable power mandate

Van Hollen: No decision yet on keeping climate panel

Kerry forecasts cloudy future for comprehensive Senate climate bill

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