E2 Morning Roundup: Murkowski expected to lose top energy panel slot, swing Republicans hold key to renewables battle, House to hear of ‘clean energy’ peril, and much more

Murkowski slated to be stripped of top energy committee slot

Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) fall from power since her stunning GOP primary loss to Joe Miller is slated to continue Wednesday.

The Senate GOP conference is expected to strip Murkowski – who has launched a write-in bid in the general election – of her spot as ranking member of the powerful Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

Republican members of the committee acted Tuesday to remove Murkowski, a prominent advocate of her state’s oil-and-gas industry, ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s planned full conference meeting.

It was McConnell all along; Burr poised to take over on acting basis

The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.) is expected to take over as senior Republican on the Senate Energy panel. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) was behind the switch.

McConnell told Republican colleagues at Tuesday’s conference meeting that he had arranged for members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to vote on someone to replace Murkowski as ranking member of the powerful panel.

A GOP lawmaker said Republican leaders thought the fairest solution was to have Burr take over as acting ranking member until Election Day. If Murkowski wins, she can have her post back, but GOP leaders see that as a remote possibility.

Murkowski’s plight creates political cash quandary

The oil-and-gas firms that are key to the Alaskan economy must decide whether they can, or should, risk undermining their long-held ties to Murkowski and shift their financial support to Republican nominee Joe Miller, The Hill’s Darren Goode reports.

Renewables lobbyists target swing Republicans

Environmentalists and renewable energy companies have their work cut out for them as they seek backing for the bipartisan renewable electricity standard, or RES, unveiled Tuesday.

“We’re doing the same thing we're usually doing which is to bring the benefits of back home into the Senate offices,” said Marchant Wentworth, a top renewables lobbyist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said supporters are continuing to target the cadre of Senate Republicans that have supported the concept, including Charles Grassley (Iowa) and Judd Gregg (N.H.).

Three Republicans – Sam Brownback (Kan.), Susan Collins (Maine) and John Ensign (Nev.) – already joined Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) in sponsoring the bill.

The bill requires many utilities to provide 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2021, although roughly a fourth of the mandate can be met with energy efficiency measures. One advocate tracking the bill said it had 22 original sponsors as of last night – including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

More on the lobbying push

Biomass industry officials are coming to D.C. Thursday for a one-day fly-in to lobby for an RES. The industry can help corral support for the bill because biomass is found “in a bunch of places that a lot of [other] renewables aren’t” said one advocate for the mandate. This includes the Southeast, where some lawmakers fear there are not enough wind resources to meet the renewable standard.

But highlighting biomass isn’t without political peril – environmentalists also worry that the push to make electricity and motor fuels from plant matter can put sensitive forests and other ecosystems at risk.

Bingaman defends left, right flanks of the renewable energy bill

Bingaman on Tuesday defended the RES plan against allegations that it’s too modest to spur renewable energy generation beyond what’s already expected due to the stimulus, state renewable standards and other existing initiatives.

He said that while the federal mandate would be at best business as usual in some states, those lacking a standard would have to at least meet the federal requirement. And, he added, nothing prevents states from going above and beyond the federal standard.

Bingaman is also continuing his years-long resistance to opening up the standard to non-renewable forms of energy. While some Republicans want more energy sources toward the mandate -- including all nuclear energy production -- Bingaman said this would complicate and water down the plan.

On tap Wednesday: Salazar, Chu, Exxon CEO headline oil spill forum

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu will lead an event Wednesday on how to strengthen the response to potential oil-and-gas well blowouts in deep waters.

“The September 22, 2010 panel discussion will help guide reforms that are raising the bar for the oil and gas industry’s practices, inform recommendations on whether and how to lift the current deepwater drilling suspension, and assist in establishing a path forward for government and industry collaboration on improving blowout containment capabilities,” according to Interior’s announcement of the event, which will he held at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. in the afternoon.

Other panelists include ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Director Michael Bromwich, and Andrew Inglis, who is BP’s head of exploration and production.

On tap Wednesday II: House climate panel looks at ‘clean energy race’

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hear from a range of experts on “the form and scale of investments in the clean energy sector, where these investments are occurring around the world, what is driving them, the broader economic and employment implications of these investments, and the challenges to growing an American clean energy sector.”

The hearing is at 10 a.m. in Room 2325 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

What to look for: Top green investment expert warns U.S risks falling behind

“Before we become too pessimistic about the state of clean energy in the US, we should recall that it remains by far the world’s leading venue for venture investment, even in clean energy technologies. US companies spend more as a percentage of revenue on research, and the US stock markets continue to attract public offerings from companies around the world,” says Michael Liebreich, head of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in prepared testimony.

But that aside, he adds: “There is no question that the period 2007 to 2009 saw Asia take over from the Americas as the number two region of the world for clean energy investment. And indeed, when we compile the figures for 2010, we will see that Asia has eclipsed Europe to take the global lead.”

Downturn gave green energy the blues

Liebreich comes armed with all kinds of interesting stats on worldwide and U.S. clean energy investment. The global economic slump hardly spared the industry despite green-focused stimulus plans in the U.S and elsewhere.

He notes that global investment in clean energy, after surging for five years to a peak of $173 billion in 2008, fell back to $162 billion in 2009.

It could have been worse. Liebreich notes that the World Ban Group’s International Finance Corp., the European Investment Bank and other institutions increased their lending. “The role these multilateral institutions and development banks have played and continue to play often gets overlooked,” his prepared testimony states.

Wanted: Policy ‘certainty’

Mark Fulton, the Managing Director and Global Head of Climate Change Investment Research at Deutsche Asset Management, warns the panel that, “uncertainties are discouraging to capital deployment in the U.S. in the long-term.”

“This year in the United States has been a challenging one for those looking to invest in these new clean energy industries on a longer term basis. Uncertainty abounds,” he said, noting the collapse of broad climate and energy legislation in the Senate.

“At the same time, the most comprehensive climate and clean energy provisions of any state are under threat from California’s proposition 23 which seeks to suspend the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32), and would have a significant impact,” he said.

Markey: Probe China’s energy trade tactics, but carefully

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the select committee’s chairman, will back the United Steelworkers’ push for a White House probe of alleged Chinese violations of trade rules through huge subsidies and preferences for domestic renewable energy companies.

“I am very concerned about China’s use of unfair trade practices to bolster the competitiveness of its industries, and I strongly urge the Obama Administration in act promptly to address violations found through the US Trade Representative’s investigation,” Markey plans to say in his prepared remarks.

But he cautions, “We must be careful in moving ahead on this trade dispute with China.”

“At the end of the day, competition is good. Competition is one of the chief reasons that the price of a solar model has fallen by half in the last two years. Competition will ultimately make solar energy competitive with grid electricity in this decade. But this competition must be fair. It must allow American workers to play on the field.”

Bigger fish to fry

Markey also suggests that it’s U.S. policy decisions – not China’s practices – that hold the key to spurring the clean energy sector here. “If we do not act decisively to provide the long-term and short-term incentives to make American the best place to invest clean energy dollars, someone else will. We will trade our addiction to Middle Eastern oil for an addiction to Asian or European clean energy technologies,” he plans to say.

In case you missed E2 Wire yesterday

Here are a few posts from Tuesday:

Senate backers of 11th-hour push on renewable power mandate predict victory

Energy companies weigh their loyalty to long-time ally Murkowski

Landrieu won’t vote for renewables bill unless offshore drilling proceeds

Murkowski to lose top GOP spot on Senate Energy Committee

Bingaman strategy: Court votes first, then approach Reid on renewables standard

Green group hits Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle in campaign attacking GOP climate skeptics

Bono backs oil measure in Wall St. law

Soros: Climate talks 'removed from reality'

Study defends oil sands on emissions . . .

This should add fuel to the fire in the climate debate.

A new study concludes that fuels made from Canadian oil sands result in higher greenhouse gas emissions than normal crude oil, but they're not nearly as high as critics of oil sands development contend.

Canadian oil sands imported to the U.S. result in greenhouse gas emissions that are on average six percent higher than the average crude consumed in the country, according to the study from IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a major industry consulting firm. This puts oil sands on par with other sources of U.S. crude imports, including oil imported from more volatile nations such as Nigeria and Venezuela, the report finds.

The study’s lead author – Jackie Forrest, IHS CERA's director for global oil – emphasized that “oil sands are not as different as the average crude consumed in the United States as people think.” She said the study is meant to provide clarity regarding “the different numbers that are out there.”

. . . and draws a quick rebuke

But Natural Resources Defense Council scientist Simon Mui quickly issued a rather scathing rebuke of the findings on the green group's blog. “There’s a lot of problems with it,” he told E2. They “recalculate” the numbers, he contends, without showing what they recalculated and how they did so. He also said the study omits “important parts of the life-cycle impacts."

On tap Wednesday III: Chamber of Commerce to fight against yanking oil-and-gas tax breaks

Karen Harbert, the CEO of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, holds a conference call this morning to make that case that removing tax incentives will harm the economy.

The briefing comes as the White House and many Democrats are pushing to remove several oil industry tax breaks, such as the industry’s ability to claim a domestic manufacturing deduction.

Light demand for oil worker relief fund – report

“Fewer people than expected have applied for money from a $100 million fund BP PLC set up to help deepwater rig workers after a federal moratorium on drilling prompted by the massive oil spill,” the Associated Press reports.

Undersea oil plume reports disputed

“The government is unable to confirm reports of a miles-long plume of oil lurking beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico from BP Plc's giant oil spill, a government scientist said on Tuesday,” Reuters reports.

Bill Clinton says climate change is increasing disaster risks

“Former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday warned of the growing devastation of the global economic downturn and said the dangers posed by natural disasters around the world had been increased by the effects of climate change,” AP reports.

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