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OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Feinberg to raise bar for oil-spill compensation payments
Welcome back to OVERNIGHT ENERGY, E2’s daily roundup of the energy news you need to know. Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and Andrew Restuccia, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . You can follow us on Twitter: @E2wire, @AndrewRestuccia.
State of play: Feinberg to raise bar for final oil-spill compensation payments
In an interview Thursday with The Hill, Kenneth Feinberg, the administrator of BP’s $20 billion oil-spill compensation fund, said spill victims will have to clear a higher bar to qualify for final compensation payments.
Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility stopped doling out emergency interim payments at the end of November and is now preparing to provide final payments to spill victims. Now that the well has been capped and many fishermen in the Gulf have gone back to work, Feinberg said he plans to look more closely at documentation before approving final claims.
Look for more from The Hill’s interview with Feinberg Friday on E2 Wire.
NEWS BITES:
Shimkus, Whitfield preview priorities for next year
As we all know by now, incoming House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) officially split the Energy and Environment Subcommittee in two Thursday. And he announced that Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) will head the House Energy and Power Subcommittee and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) will head the Environment and Economy Subcommittee.
Whitfield on Thursday laid out his priorities for next year. His first orders of business? Delaying implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to reduce interstate power plant air emissions and blocking the agency’s attempts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions.
Whitfield’s other areas of interest include coal, nuclear power and natural gas. Kentucky is a coal state and, Whitfield notes in a statement, "It hosts the nation’s only enrichment facility producing uranium for nuclear power plants, located in Paducah.”
A Shimkus spokesman said the congressman would not get specific about his plans for next year until “the jurisdictional issues are ironed out” between the newly formed subcommittees. But a statement from Shimkus’s office Thursday gives us a clue.
“I look forward to tackling the challenging issues before us, such as safe water and nuclear waste, which have been priorities of mine for years,” Shimkus said.
Interior, Energy Dept. plan lights the way for solar projects
The
Obama administration unveiled a plan Thursday to spur development of
large-scale solar projects on federal lands in Western states.
The draft plan — rolled out by the Interior and Energy departments — is
aimed at standardizing and speeding up permitting for projects in Colorado, Nevada, California and other states.
Under the
initiative, Interior would create “solar energy zones” deemed ripe for
development due to their high energy potential and lower amounts of
“environmental and resource conflicts,” the agencies said. The zones
would cover about 677,000 acres, but the agencies say “reasonably
foreseeable” development would cover less than a third of that acreage.
Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar told reporters that it’s an “important next step
in our nation’s march towards an renewable energy future.” There’s
plenty more info here.
Industry group urges approval of bill to delay EPA climate rules ...
A
manufacturing industry group is urging the Senate to approve Sen. Jay
Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) longshot bill to block EPA greenhouse gas rules. The
Industrial Energy Consumers of America, in a letter to Senate leaders
Thursday, says the measure should be tacked onto an omnibus spending
bill or continuing resolution this year.
“Your leadership is
needed. Unless the Senate acts, the EPA GHG regulations will start in
January of 2011. The economic and regulatory uncertainties imposed by
these regulations is a disincentive for manufacturing companies to
invest in existing and new facilities and encourages companies to
invest abroad rather than in the U.S.,” the group writes.
... while environmentalists push back
The Natural Resources Defense Council circulated an e-mail to Senate offices Thursday that attacks Rockefeller’s measure. “Laws
like the Clean Air Act are designed to ensure that public health, not
corporate interests, determine how clean our air is,” the group states.
“We urge you to help move the country forward by supporting and
promoting the important work of the EPA, not undermining it.”
Disclosure advocates to SEC: Don’t backtrack on oil payments rule
Activists
seeking greater transparency in oil and mining company payments to
foreign governments see a glass half-full in draft Securities and
Exchange Commission disclosure rules.
The rules floated
Wednesday, which require companies to detail their payments in SEC filings, are mandated under the landmark Wall Street reform law. Ian Gary
of Oxfam America — part of the broader Publish What You Pay
coalition — is glad the rule “hews closely” to the Wall Street law by
applying the requirements to all oil, gas and mining companies that
file reports with the commission.
But he’s also concerned the SEC will
back off. “The proposed rule maintains this requirement, but, on the
other hand, then goes on to request specific comment on whether they
should allow for exemptions of certain categories of companies or
exceptions to payment disclosure requirement under certain
circumstances,” he said in an e-mail to The Hill.
Gary fears that
the SEC is “opening the door to arguments that could have the effect of
undermining the statutory provision.” We have more on the disclosure
mandate here and here.
In case you missed it ...
On Thursday, E2 reported on new findings by the presidential oil-spill commission,
which took aim at controversial sand berms that were designed to keep
oil off Louisiana’s shores. The project was costly and ineffective, the
commission staff found.
We also:
• Looked at the new leadership of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee
• Checked in on Rockefeller’s bid to block EPA climate rules
• Unwrapped new Energy Department data on coal plants and greenhouse gas emissions
• Noted the looming partisan battles on the House Natural Resources Committee
• Explained why researchers recommend Nintendo for energy-conscious video-game shoppers
AROUND THE WEB:
Site of Chernobyl nuclear disaster to admit tourists
"The site of the worst nuclear accident in history will be a new tourist attraction, the Ukrainian government announced Monday, Dec. 13. The area around Chernobyl is scheduled to open to visitors next year," Fox News reports.
"Where tourists are allowed to go, how long they may stay, and what they eat will be carefully controlled, government officials say, so the radiation risks are 'negligible.' "
Wind, solar groups increase campaign contributions
"Renewable power businesses that stand to benefit from energy provisions in the tax package scheduled for a House vote today boosted campaign contributions this election cycle, part of their widening political presence," Greenwire reported Thursday.
