The week ahead: House GOP set to subpoena White House over Solyndra

By Andrew Restuccia - 10/31/11 08:47 AM ET

House Republicans are expected to subpoena the White House this week for more documents about failed solar company Solyndra.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel will meet Thursday to vote on a resolution to authorize a White House subpoena. The vote comes after the White House rejected Republicans’ request for all internal communications related to Solyndra, noting that the administration has already provided more than 70,000 pages of documents to the committee.

Read more about the subpoena vote here, here and here.

Also this week, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will hold two energy-related hearings. The first, a full committee hearing on Tuesday, focuses on the Environmental Protection Agency’s pending air toxics rules for coal plants, known as “Utility MACT.” The hearing is called, “Should EPA Take A Step Back To Fully Consider Utility MACT's [Maximum Achievable Control Technology] Impact on Job Creation?"

The second hearing, of the committee’s regulatory affairs subcommittee on Wednesday, is titled, “The Green Energy Debacle: Where Has All The Taxpayer Money Gone?"

A panel of the House Natural Resources Committee will meet Wednesday to examine drilling in Cuba and other countries near the United States. Officials have warned in recent months that foreign drilling could threaten U.S. coastal areas.

The committee will also meet Wednesday for the second part of its examination of a recent federal report that blamed BP and its contractors for last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to vote this week on a package that includes several appropriations bills, including for the Department of Transportation.

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

• The House Transportation Committee is holding a hearing Wednesday titled, "Assuring the Safety of Domestic Energy Production: Lessons Learned from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill."

• A panel of the House Science Committee will examine "Conflicts and Unintended Consequences of Motor Fuel Standards” on Wednesday.

• A subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee will look into everglades restoration Thursday.

• Another Natural Resources Committee panel will hold a hearing Friday called, "Jobs at Risk: Waste and Mismanagement by the Obama Administration in Rewriting the Stream Buffer Zone Rule."

Outside Washington, Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman will deliver an energy speech Tuesday at the University of New Hampshire.