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E2 Morning Roundup: Coal-state lawmakers fight EPA, Graham leads Canadian oil sands trip, Barton goes after Upton light bulb deal and more
A bipartisan group of coal-state House lawmakers backed by industry want to block tougher EPA water-quality permit guidelines for "mountaintop removal" mining projects in Appalachia.
Their bill — introduced Sept. 14 by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and co-sponsored by seven Republicans and four Democrats — is Exhibit A that the coal industry’s political battle against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) runs deeper than just climate change.
“There’s clearly a lot of concern about cap-and-trade,” National Mining Association spokeswoman Carol Raulston said. “But this is really immediate. These permits have a limited life on them. So these are things that are right on top of them.”
The topic came up during a Capitol Hill rally Wednesday that lawmakers and other coal-state officials attended.
The problem, they say, is that EPA has included a conductivity threshold — which measures the total dissolved solids in water — that is unreasonably strict. In addition, Raulston contends, “This never went through the rulemaking process. It’s just not even valid science. They’ve set these … numbers seemingly out of thin air.”
When EPA’s new guidelines were announced in early April, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a statement said the “people of Appalachia shouldn't have to choose between a clean, healthy environment in which to raise their families and the jobs they need to support them.”
Oil-spill liability fight returns
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) is returning focus next week on a deal setting oil-spill liability limits for producers. “We’ll re-gear now, so next week we're back on this issue,” he told E2 Thursday. Begich said he and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) were sidetracked their first week back from the summer congressional break with small-business legislation the Senate approved Thursday.
There may not be enough time this year, though, to resolve the problem legislatively, Begich acknowledged. “But I think we’re going to try to work through this,” he said. Obama administration officials have been in contact “to try to work through this and get a compromise,” he added.
Opposition by Begich, Landrieu and others to language in an aborted oil-spill and energy package this summer retroactively removing the liability cap for oil-and-gas producers forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to shelve the overall package.
EPA fight on Defense bill?
Senate Republicans are
threatening to try to use next week’s debate on the Senate floor over a
Defense Department authorization bill — which historically has become a
Christmas tree of sorts for a variety of unrelated issues — to make
their case for delaying EPA climate regulations. “The official line for
now is that the defense bill is the wrong place for a campaign wish list,” an
aide to Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said in an e-mail to E2. “I guess we’ll
wait and see whether Ds go [sic] through with plans to load on extra stuff and
whether that opens the door to other things.”
Graham leads Senate trio on Canadian oil sands trip
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — who backed out of negotiations earlier this year on a climate-change and energy strategy — has not completely shied away from jumping into the center of a politically dicey debate over oil-and-gas production.
He is leading a three-senator trip to Western Canada — which began Thursday evening — to inspect oil sands in Alberta and be briefed on carbon capture and sequestration technology in Saskatoon, as the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail reports.
He and Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) and Kay Hagen (D-N.C.) are expected to meet with Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, who dined with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last week to discuss the controversial importing of Canadian oil sands to the United States. House Democrats and environmentalists have cited that oil-sands production, use and its delivery to U.S. refineries has serious environmental consequences.
Barton goes after Upton light-bulb deal
House Energy and Commerce ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) and two other panel Republicans are seeking to overturn language in a 2007 energy bill that Barton’s likely replacement as lead Republican on the panel helped orchestrate.
Barton and Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Michael Burgess (R-Texas) Thursday introduced a bill repealing language in the 2007 energy bill Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Jane Harmon (D-Calif.) authored that sets new standards for incandescent light bulbs. The three Republicans charge it is a de facto ban on those bulbs. GOP committee sources said Upton's office was alerted about the bill before it was introduced.
Barton would like to convince House Republican leaders to waive his term-limited party leadership on the panel and continue his role for another Congress. Upton is interested, though, in replacing him as lead Republican on the panel. An Upton spokesman declined to comment.
Crystal ball calls RES prospects ‘grim’ ...
The
analysts at ClearView Energy Partners don’t expect the frenzied push for a renewable electricity standard to get far in the Senate.
“We offer again our equally vehement, but not-yet-consensus, view that
Big Climate’s major components face equally grim odds … and, yes, this
includes a national Renewable Electricity Standard,” the consulting firm
said in a research note Thursday afternoon that calls any energy bill
unlikely this year.
... and doesn't see a major oil-spill
response bill in the cards either
“Similarly, we see few
pathways to any 'spill bill' that would substantially revamp U.S. oil
and gas policy unless a major, external catalyst drives it through
Congress, and any event that brings a spill bill back into focus could
also precipitate a Congressional 'stampede' towards sweeping reforms,
onshore and off,” they add.
But opponents of EPA climate rules
are ascendant
Finally, ClearView sees "growing momentum" for
delaying EPA limits on greenhouse gases (GHG). “We believe Congress is likely
to strip EPA’s ability to enforce GHG emissions regulations for
stationary sources in 2011 under the existing Clean Air Act,” they
write.
Industry, pro-drilling lawmakers bash federal stats on
drilling ban
The Obama administration is under fire over its
study showing that the economic effects of the deepwater oil-and-gas
drilling ban have been much milder than feared. It estimated 8,000-12,000 jobs losses from
the ongoing six-month ban, but called them temporary — in any case
it’s well below an earlier forecast of 23,000 jobs killed.
Gulf
Coast senators from both parties said the forecast unveiled Thursday sugarcoated the economic blow to the
region, and industry groups got in on the act too.
“Today’s
report from the Obama Administration on the job losses caused by their
blanket deepwater drilling moratorium downplays the true impact being
felt in the Gulf Region,” said Randall Luthi, president of the National
Ocean Industries Association, in a prepared statement. “It will be no
comfort to these unemployed workers to read how their plight could be
worse had the ... earlier estimates of 23,000 rendered jobless been
realized.”
But an environmentalist said it’s important to focus on
industries that really got slammed by the BP oil spill.
“Despite
what some might say, the sky is not falling because of the temporary
drilling moratorium; but it has already fallen on tens of thousands of
fishermen and tourism industry workers who are out of jobs because of
the BP oil spill. The spill closed over 80,000 square miles of fishing
waters, killed or polluted fish and shellfish that fishermen catch, and
chased tourists away from oiled beaches stretching from Grand Isle, LA
to east of Pensacola, FL almost 600 miles away,” said Mike Gravitz,
oceans advocate for Environment America, in a prepared statement.
Battle intensifies over landmark California climate law
Oil refining companies have escalated their effort to suspend California’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law. Refiners Valero Energy Corp. and Tesoro Corp. have given roughly $4 million and $1.5 million so far, respectively, in support of Proposition 23, a ballot initiative this November that would suspend California’s 2006 law requiring emissions of greenhouse-gas emissions in the state to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020, The Wall Street Journal reports. An oil-refining subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc. contributed $1 million for the ballot initiative earlier this month.
The wave of contributions by out-of-state oil companies “is raising concerns among conservationists as it emerges as a test of public support for potentially costly environmental measures during tough economic times,” notes The New York Times.
Houses passes energy-efficiency bill
In perhaps the only action we’ll see by the House on energy issues this fall, lawmakers Thursday approved a bill granting loans for the energy-efficiency renovation of homes and rural public utilities and electric cooperatives. It passed 240-172, largely along party lines.
“The House vote is a great example of how, even in an election year, energy efficiency continues to cross the ideological divide and bring both sides of the political spectrum together to pass meaningful and fiscally-responsible energy policy that works on behalf of all Americans,” Alliance to Save Energy President Kateri Callahan said in a statement.
Murkowski bill names mountain, ice field after Stevens
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) Thursday introduced a bill to name the tallest unnamed peak in Alaska after the late-Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). The proposed Stevens Peak is 13,895 feet high and located in Denali National Park and Preserve. She has also proposed naming the northern half of the Chugach ice field after Stevens, who died in an Aug. 9 plane crash in Alaska.
In case you missed E2 Wire yesterday...
Here are a few posts from Thursday:
Liberal Dem: White House didn’t push climate bill enough
Pelosi lauds vulnerable Rep. Perriello’s ‘courage’ in backing climate bill
Sen. Ben Nelson says he'd support GOP amendment to delay EPA regs
Feinstein: Interior spending bill off calendar over EPA climate rules
Obama administration says economic impact of drilling ban less than feared
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