OVERNIGHT ENERGY: US-China green energy trade battle may escalate Friday

By Ben Geman and Zack Colman - 07/26/12 07:11 PM ET

STATE OF PLAY: The Commerce Department will unveil preliminary findings Friday in an anti-dumping probe of China’s sales of wind-energy towers to the United States.

New tariffs, if imposed, would follow a late May initial decision to slap tariffs on the utility-scale towers based on what U.S. officials call unfair Chinese subsidies for producers and exporters.

The White House is trying to show that it’s taking a tough stance with China at a time when presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has criticized the administration for being too lenient.

Click here for more on the politics of the escalating green trade battle with China.

NEWS BITES:

Activists press USDA on drought-climate nexus

Climate change activists and farmers are pressuring Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to link human activity to climate change that has negatively affected agriculture, including the worst drought in decades that’s gripping a number of states.

The groups Forecast the Facts and Food Democracy Now joined farmers in a petition demanding Vilsack address climate change.

Last week when speaking about how the drought has impacted farmers, Vilsack tiptoed around several questions regarding climate change, saying, “I’m not a scientist, so I’m not going to opine as to the cause of this.”

The petitioners noted a 2009 Agriculture Department report said man-made climate change would exacerbate water shortages, lengthen heat waves and extend droughts in the Great Plains.

“It’s simply not credible for Vilsack to now claim he is unaware of the science, and it contradicts the USDA’s mission of providing farmers with the scientific information they need to do their jobs,” the petitioners said Thursday in a statement.

NRC officials, industry to meet on safety

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff are slated to meet with industry representatives Friday to discuss safety reforms in the wake of last year’s disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

The NRC in March began issuing orders on improving the safety of spent fuel pools, venting and other matters.

Cybersecurity bill advances in Senate

The Senate advanced a sweeping cybersecurity plan Thursday that’s shot through with implications for the electric power industry, gas pipelines and other infrastructure.

Check out our Hillicon Valley blog, which is all over the bill.

Lineup set for climate hearing

The agenda is set for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Aug. 1 hearing on climate change. Click here for the lineup.

Inquiry finds conflicts of interest in energy grants

Bloomberg reports:

A U.S. Energy Department program designed to promote use of alternative fuels for vehicles gave out about $5 million in grants to individuals with conflicts of interest, the agency’s inspector general said.

The department’s Clean Cities program made an award to an individual who in turn gave money to a family member’s company, Rickey Hass, the Energy Department’s deputy inspector general, told a House Science subcommittee in testimony today. In another case, a coalition the government entrusted to distribute federal money gave 40 percent of its available funds to entities associated with board members, Hass said.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire Thursday . . .

- Senate Republicans shape energy agenda with election in mind
- Sen. Inhofe wants EPA to delay pollution rule
- Murkowski: Interior should consider extension for Shell
- Democrats say Romney’s beholden to ‘Big Oil’
- Rockefeller renews mine safety push with revised bill
- Interior’s drilling chief brings know-how, apolitical approach to job