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OVERNIGHT ENERGY: GOP bashes White House over solar loan
Wednesday’s Big Story: Top Obama administration officials are headed toward a high-profile clash Wednesday with House Republicans over the Energy Department’s decision to approve a $535 million loan guarantee for a now-bankrupt California solar panel company.
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hear Wednesday morning from officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Energy Department on the loan guarantee to Solyndra.
Committee Republicans have been skeptical about the loan guarantee for months and launched an investigation in February. But the late August news that Solyndra will suspend manufacturing, lay off 1,100 employees and file for bankruptcy has opened the flood gates of GOP criticism of the administration.
Republicans say the bankruptcy shows that the Obama administration’s green energy push — particularly DOE’s loan-guarantee program — is a failure.
Here’s a taste of what you might hear at Wednesday’s hearing:
“Unfortunately, the president in his mindset clings to the idea that he’s going to create jobs through solar panels and yet solar panels in themselves have not been an economic viability. He has this religious fervor that this whole country will create new jobs through this green industry when in fact it’s job losses that can occur.”
Republicans are widening the scope of their investigation into the Solyndra loan guarantee, which was issued in 2009 by the Energy Department under the stimulus law to help finance the construction of a new plant to manufacture solar panels. Stearns said he is examining a slew of other loan guarantees authorized by the Energy Department.
At the same time, Stearns is pressing the White House for more documents related to the loan guarantee and suggested Tuesday that Republicans would consider issuing a subpoena for them if the administration does not provide them. Republicans on the committee voted in July to subpoena OMB for documents related to the Solyndra loan guarantee.
Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and Jonathan Silver, executive director of the Energy Department Loan Programs Office, will testify Wednesday. Two Solyndra executives were slated to testify at the hearing, but they are now scheduled to appear before the subcommittee next week.
NEWS BITES:
Gore to launch new climate-change presentation
Former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project is launching his latest global warming presentation Thursday as part of a day-long, multicountry event.
The presentation, which focuses on the connections between extreme weather and climate change, will be delivered in every time zone in 13 languages.
Organizers say the event is about science, not politics.
“The point we’re trying to make is that the severe weather that people are witnessing is completely in line with climate change,” Climate Reality Project Program Director Kevin Curtis told The Hill. “There’s no political call to action. It’s really just trying to connect the dots.”
Climate change has become increasingly political in recent years, with Republicans and Democrats clashing over the scientific consensus that the planet is warming in large part due to human activity.
Gore, a longtime climate activist, has often waded into these political battles, blasting members of Congress — and even President Obama — for not taking decisive action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Washington state AG blasts NRC decision to end Yucca review
Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna is calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to clarify its Friday decision to end review of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
In a letter Monday, McKenna said NRC procedure does not allow the commission to abandon the project without a clear majority vote.
The NRC commissioners voted 2-2 Friday on whether to uphold a decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) to reject the Energy Department’s attempt to withdraw Yucca’s license application.
Despite the split vote, the NRC called on the ASLB to close out its work on Yucca Mountain by the end this month, part of a larger effort by the Obama administration to abandon the long-delayed project.
“The Order is contradictory,” McKenna wrote. “As we understand the NRC’s Internal Commission Procedures, an NRC split vote that fails to affirm or reverse the Atomic Safety Licensing Board’s June 29, 2010, decision would leave the denial of DOE’s motion to withdraw intact. Therefore, the licensing proceeding should continue.”
McKenna, in his letter, represented the parties that sued the NRC for not making a final decision on the Yucca license application.
The letter came a day before NRC issued the final of three technical evaluations of DOE’s Yucca Mountain license application. The release of the report shows that the commission is “nearing the successful completion of its orderly closure of the licensing review process,” NRC said Tuesday in a news release.
House subcommittee approves bills to soften key EPA air rules
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee approved two bills Tuesday aimed at softening two key Environmental Protection Agency regulations.
The bills, which passed the Energy and Power subcommittee by voice vote, would lower air-pollution requirements and delay the compliance deadline for industrial boilers and cement plants.
Republicans praised the bills during Tuesday’s markup. Full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), for example, said EPA regulations “pose a real threat to jobs and the economy.”
But many Democrats on the panel blasted the bills.
“These bills represent a toxic assault on public health,” said Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.).
ON TAP WEDNESDAY:
FERC officials to talk power reliability
A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will host all five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a hearing about how new and pending EPA rules will affect power reliability.
Republicans accusing the EPA of regulatory overreach say the standards, taken together, will jeopardize electric supply reliability. But recent Bipartisan Policy Center and Congressional Research Service reports call the concerns overblown.
House committee to probe mining ‘hurdles’
The House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on domestic mining opportunities and hurdles.
NRC meeting to tackle safety reforms
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet Wednesday to discuss proposals for implementing recommendations from a task force on safety matters reviewed in the wake of the Japanese nuclear crisis.
OMB official to talk regulations
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on regulatory policy. Witnesses will include Cass Sunstein, head of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
EPA rules have been among the chief targets of Capitol Hill Republicans. The White House recently scuttled planned EPA ozone standards but says it is holding firm on other EPA air-pollution rules.
GridWeek powers ahead
The big GridWeek 2011 electricity conference continues. More here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …
Here’s a quick roundup of Tuesday’s E2 stories:
- Solyndra executives to testify before House subpanel next week
- House GOP widening scope of Solyndra probe, wants answers from White House
- BP spill report, Bromwich decision on future imminent
- Senate GOP seeks regulatory ‘time out’
- Interior beefs up rig-safety rules again
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