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OVERNIGHT ENERGY: White House knocks GOP Keystone 'fallacy'
State of play: White House press secretary Jay Carney stressed Tuesday that the Obama administration will have little choice but to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline under an expedited schedule included in the payroll tax cut package.
Carney, in his daily briefing, echoed comments by the State Department, which is heading up the review of the pipeline, and other administration officials.
He said President Obama can’t approve the pipeline by Feb. 21, the end of the 60-day deadline under the payroll package, because the State Department is in the process of reviewing an alternate pipeline route around an environmentally sensitive region of Nebraska.
“[I]t is a fallacy to suggest that the president should sign into law something when there isn't even an alternate route identified in Nebraska and when ... there was an attempt to short-circuit the review process in a way that does not allow the kind of careful consideration of all the competing criteria here that needs to be done,” Carney said.
“[E]veryone — a lot of people, and certainly we — made clear back in December that a political effort to short-circuit that process for ideological reasons would be counterproductive because a proper review that weighed all the important issues in this case could not be achieved in 60 days.”
But Republicans, industry groups and other supporters of the pipeline — which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the Gulf Coast — are hoping to punish Obama politically if he rejects the pipeline.
The supporters have long argued that the project will boost the economy and create thousands — some say hundreds of thousands — of jobs. The National Republican Congressional Committee, for example, compared the project to the Hoover Dam in a new Web ad.
Carney insisted Tuesday during the briefing that the jobs council report does not endorse the Keystone pipeline.
Environmental groups and other opponents of the pipeline have been working overtime in recent months to undercut Keystone supporters’ claims about the project. The Natural Resources Defense Council will hold a briefing for reporters Wednesday on a new report commissioned by the group that says the pipeline would “raise oil prices in the Midwest for American consumers.”
NEWS BITES:
BP set to release energy report
BP is expected to unveil its annual energy outlook early Tuesday morning. The report, which details energy trends to 2030, will be released at an event in London and should be available online by 5:30 a.m. EST.
Top energy lobbyists dust off crystal balls
The heads of trade groups for the oil, power, mining and other industries will gather at the National Press Club Wednesday for the United States Energy Association’s annual State of the Energy Industry event.
It’s a series of remarks from the heads of trade groups such as the American Petroleum Institute, the Edison Electric Institute, the National Mining Association, the Nuclear Energy Institute and more.
The event comes at the start of a year in which House Republicans are vowing to continue focusing on energy, including plans to fund U.S. infrastructure projects with revenues from expanded domestic oil-and-gas development.
Bipartisan deals are likely to be very tough to come by.
But lawmakers would also be acting by not acting on some tax issues — in particular, the production tax credit that’s vital for the wind energy sector is slated to expire at year’s end.
API President Jack Gerard plans to keep up his criticism of President Obama for failing to approve the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline to date. He’ll also allege the administration is hindering natural-gas production despite voicing support for the fuel.
From his prepared remarks at the event:
But evidently this administration wants to keep those reserves in the ground, because there are now eight federal departments and agencies either seeking to delay or contemplating new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the technology that has made the shale revolution possible; yet without hydraulic fracturing, the bulk of our future natural gas production is impossible.
CEQ’s Sutley, other officials highlight environment conference
The National Council for Science and the Environment’s big annual Washington, D.C., conference gets rolling Wednesday.
Speakers during the day will include White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley, energy guru Amory Lovins and others. More info here.
Duke Energy to pare back coal-fired power
The energy news service Platts reports that power giant Duke Energy has reached a settlement with environmental groups to retire 1,667 megawatts of coal-fired generation.
Chevron barred from ‘fracking’ Bulgaria
While battles over hydraulic fracturing rage in the United States, The Associated Press reports that Bulgarian officials are barring energy giant Chevron from using the controversial gas-drilling method there.
The whole story is here.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...
Here's a quick roundup of Tuesday's E2 stories:
— Upton challenger officially enters race
— Obama's jobs council report says 'drill'
— GOP using Solyndra to parry attacks on Mitt Romney's record
— Club for Growth slams GOP Rep. Upton as challenger prepares to enter race
— New Republican pipeline ad spoofs MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow
— Obama takes on Florida snakes
— Canadian PM plays Iran card in Keystone push
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