The Week Ahead: House to consider Interior, EPA spending bill

The House is slated to begin consideration this week of fiscal 2012 Interior and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spending legislation that includes a slew of policy riders aimed at hobbling Obama administration regulations.

The bill would prevent the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and refineries for one year.

Other policy riders include provisions preventing federal regulators from moving forward with regulations intended to protect streams from mountaintop-removal coal mining; language blocking a change in the definition of “navigable waterways” under the Clean Water Act; and a provision exempting some agriculture activities from greenhouse-gas reporting requirements.

The bill would also speed up air pollution permits for Shell Oil and other companies seeking to drill in Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast and cut almost 80 percent from Land and Water Conservation Fund programs.

Overall, the bill would provide $9.86 billion for the Interior Department, a $720 million cut from current spending. It would provide $7.1 billion for the EPA, well below the agency’s current-year funding of $8.7 billion.

The White House threatened to veto the legislation Thursday.

Expect a lively debate in the House this week on the bill as Republicans and Democrats battle over the policy riders and amendments offered on the floor.

The House is also expected to consider Republican-backed legislation that would force President Obama to make a decision on TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline by Nov. 1.

The pipeline would carry oil sands from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Republicans have championed the project, arguing it will create jobs and ensure that the United States is less reliant on Middle Eastern oil. But environmental groups and others have raised concerns about the possibility of oil spills and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil sands production.

The State Department said Friday that it would unveil a final environmental impact statement on the Keystone XL project in August and expects to make a final decision by the end of the year.

There are a number of other energy-related hearings this week.

A subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on whether the federal government is prepared to deliver adequate assistance in the event of severe weather.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on the nomination of Rebecca Wodder be assistant secretary for fish and wildlife at the Interior Department. The hearing comes after about three dozen House Republicans raised concerns about Wodder’s nomination, arguing that her involvement with two major conservation groups presents a conflict of interest.

Later Thursday, the Senate Energy panel’s National Parks subcommittee will examine a suite of lands bills.

A panel of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday called "Lights Out: How EPA Regulations Threaten Affordable Power and Job Creation."

The House Natural Resources Committee’s Fisheries panel will hold an oversight hearing Tuesday on fishery science at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on state perspectives on revenue sharing from offshore drilling. The hearings comes after lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee pushed an amendment to offshore drilling safety legislation aimed at sharing revenue from offshore drilling with states. The amendment never received a vote, and consideration of the broad offshore safety bill stalled.

Off Capitol Hill, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold its first public meeting Thursday on a task force report that recommended sweeping changes to the country’s nuclear safety regulations. It’s the first in a series of meetings with stakeholders on the report.

NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko has called on his fellow commissioners to review and make decisions on the task force’s recommendations within 90 days. But some of his fellow commissioners have objected to that schedule.