OVERNIGHT ENERGY: The next Senate energy team could be Graham-Begich

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State of play: Begich reaches out to Graham on energy

Is a 2011 Senate coalition on energy starting to take shape?

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said he called Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) late last week after learning that the South Carolina Republican wants to be a player again on energy in the next Congress.

The freshman senator says he, too, wants to be in the thick of talks aimed at crafting a long-term U.S. energy policy — a politically tricky and elusive task.

“That is what I am going to be pushing hard for,” Begich said in the Capitol Monday. “I will continue reach over the aisle with other Republicans who are interested also, as Lindsey Graham has indicated he is, and figure out where there is some opportunity.”

“I called him and said let me know how I can help. ... It is a national security and economic security issue,” Begich added.

Graham walked away from climate and energy talks with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) earlier this year. Kerry and Lieberman say they will be in the mix again too.

Lieberman has listed Graham and several other Republicans as possible negotiating partners on an energy bill now that cap-and-trade is dead (see ‘Lieberman eyes Republicans for energy deals’ in this post).

The Begich plan: Drilling, revenue-sharing, gas pipeline

Begich, like other Alaska lawmakers, is heavily pro-oil and natural-gas development — domestic sources he called critical to a long-term plan. He argues that offshore drilling in Arctic waters can occur safely and wants the Obama administration to greenlight projects there.

He said Monday that he’d also push for providing Alaska a share of royalty revenues from offshore production there. Begich also said continued incentives for development of the long-stalled pipeline to bring Alaskan natural gas to Lower 48 markets is vital.

Threading the needle on gas ‘fracking’

Elsewhere, Begich said he’s in a good spot to help ease tensions over hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” — the controversial oil-and-gas drilling technique that’s helping enable a natural-gas boom in the Lower 48 but bringing environmental concerns along with it.

“Alaska has been doing fracking for a long, long time, and if you notice, there is no controversy. I think we have a lot of offer to that discussion, which is critical to the Lower 48 gas development,” he said.

Begich said it’s possible to increase industry disclosure of the chemicals used while protecting proprietary information at the same time. “I think that [disclosure] is an important piece so that people feel comfortable wherever it is done that it is not contaminating groundwater and other things,” Begich said.

“I think there is a way to weave through this to ensure the public safety is protected, as we have done in Alaska, at the same time protecting some of the industry’s concerns about their proprietary information,” he said.

On Tap Tuesday: Report looks at carbon cuts through better transportation policy

The Natural Resources Defense Council will hold a press briefing titled, “States' Transportation Policies Can Curb Carbon Pollution.”

The bottom line: “An analysis of transportation policies in all 50 states finds that state departments of transportation as well as the federal government can improve their role in reducing the pollution known to cause climate change,” the groups said.

“The Natural Resources Defense Council and Smart Growth America will release a report Tuesday in which authors have graded and ranked states based on their infrastructure policies, investment decisions and plans to reduce transportation emissions.”

On Tap Tuesday II: Pielke to discuss new climate change book

The Austrian Embassy is holding a book discussion at 6 p.m. on Roger Pielke’s new book, The Climate Fix: What Scientists and Politicians Won't Tell You About Global Warming. Pielke, a professor at the University of Colorado, has been criticized by some in the environmental community for his beliefs on climate change.

NEWS BITES:

Gulf oil-spill top Twitter trending topic of 2010

The good people at Twitter analyzed the year’s 25 billion tweets and came up with a list of the top 10 trending topics. Topping the list this year is the Gulf oil spill. For more, click here.

Next tax package vote this week, unclear if amendments will be allowed

Expect a vote on the Senate bill to extend Bush-era tax cuts by midweek, but the date and time are still up in the air. Regan LaChapelle, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), told The Hill Reid is still working with Republicans on the timing of the next vote as well as whether amendments will be allowed.

Ethanol industry praises lawmakers for approving tax package on procedural vote

The ethanol industry was quite pleased with Monday’s cloture vote to move forward the tax package, which includes a one-year extension of key ethanol tax incentives. In a statement, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dineen said, "The Senate has taken an important step to keep America on the path toward greater energy self-reliance. We encourage the Senate to move as swiftly as possible to pass this measure. By extending key tax incentives for ethanol production and use, new and existing ethanol technologies can continue to develop and evolve with some confidence.”

Feinstein eyes dwindling chances for ethanol amendment

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is pushing an amendment to the Senate tax package that would reduce the value of ethanol tax credits, and funnel some of the savings into another round of tax credits for projects to manufacture low-carbon energy components.

The California Democrat, speaking to reporters, didn’t sound upbeat Monday about the likelihood of having a chance to offer her amendment to the tax bill. But she and several other Democrats are nonetheless pushing Senate leaders on her plan to lower the ethanol blender’s credit and the import tariff to 36 cents per gallon. The current tax package extends both programs at current levels through 2011.

“Lowering the tariff and subsidy to 36 cents-per-gallon, a level already supported by the ethanol lobby itself, would allow the Senate to fund the widely supported Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit (48C) and lower the cost of this legislation to the taxpayer,” states a letter from Feinstein and six other Senate Democrats Monday to Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

“Reducing the ethanol subsidies and trade barriers proposed in this legislation would substantially reduce the cost of this bill to the American taxpayer, while allowing the Senate to support the vitally important development of our manufacturing sector,” adds the letter from senators including Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.).

Feinstein also said she’s eyeing other legislative vehicles. “We are going to have to find a way somewhere,” she said.

No word yet on Energy and Commerce subcommittee spots

An aide in Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) office says there’s no word yet on when the lawmaker will announce who is filling the rest of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee spots, including the coveted Energy and Environment Subcommittee. Upton appointed Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) chairman of the Health Subcommittee last week.

AROUND THE WEB:

Minnick says House failed to sell cap-and-trade

Greenwire talks to Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho), the freshman congressman who lost his reelection campaign last month, about what he considers the House’s failures on energy and environmental policy this year.

"Very little went well in energy and the environment," he told Greenwire. "That was an area where we had a particularly tin ear and where the solution to the biggest issue — global warming -- proposed by the party ... got transformed by its opposition from cap and trade to cap and tax and became politically toxic almost every place in the country."