OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Climate advocates seek post-SOTU momentum, House looks at energy costs

COMING THURSDAY: On the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union vow to confront climate change, a pair of liberal Senate lawmakers will seek to stay on the political offensive tomorrow.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), flanked by environmentalists, will roll out legislation to impose fees on greenhouse gas emissions.

The effort arrives a few days before a major Feb. 17 climate demonstration in Washington, D.C.

“Under the legislation, a fee on carbon pollution emissions would fund historic investments in energy efficiency and sustainable energy technologies such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass. The proposal also would provide rebates to consumers to offset any efforts by oil, coal or gas companies to raise prices,” an advisory states.

The bill faces grim prospects of becoming law. But it’s part of a wider effort to create political space for action on climate change at a time when Obama is planning to use executive powers in the face of congressional gridlock.

Boxer, the chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said the legislation would be helpful, but added that Obama has authority to act under the Clean Air Act.

“That will help us move quicker, but the president, really he has got, really, the ability to just carry out the law,” she told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday. “I have to stand sentry here with my colleagues making sure that those regulations that he puts out are not overturned.”

People joining the lawmakers at the bill’s rollout include Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben.

They’re among the organizers of a major climate rally on the National Mall on Sunday that will focus heavily on calls for Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline.

A pair of environmental groups released polls Wednesday showing public support for action on climate change.

The League of Conservation Voters unveiled a survey conducted by Joel Benenson of the Benenson Strategy Group, who is also Obama’s pollster.

It finds that 65 percent of voters support the president taking “significant steps to address climate change now.”

Separately, the Natural Resources Defense Council released a poll taken immediately after Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

“(Sixty) percent of Americans support the president using his authority to reduce dangerous carbon pollution, including 53 percent of independents,” states a summary of the survey taken by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.

IN THE HOUSE THURSDAY: An Oversight and Government Reform Committee panel will hear from several experts at a hearing about “the effects of rising energy costs on American families and employers.”

Their testimony is available here. Witnesses will include attorney and energy economist Gene Trisko, who prepares analyses from a coal industry group called the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

He’ll make the case that Environmental Protection Agency air pollution regulations are driving up consumer electricity costs.

On the motor fuels side of things, a representative of another fossil energy-affiliated group, the Institute for Energy Research, will allege the Obama administration places too many areas off-limits to drilling and that refiners face burdensome regulations.

But Daniel J. Weiss of the liberal Center for American Progress plans to tell the panel that overall energy costs as a share of family income are down slightly since 2008, and that gasoline prices are tethered to global crude oil market factors beyond U.S. control.

“Fortunately, the Obama administration has adopted essential programs to help families and businesses reduce their energy expenditures. This includes investments in energy efficiency, vehicle fuel economy, and clean, renewable electricity — none of which are subject to price volatility experienced by fossil fuels,” his prepared testimony states. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire Wednesday and late Tuesday night after the State of the Union ...

– Hydropower bill sails through House
– Obama and Murkowski back green tech cash – with one huge difference
– Keystone pipeline protesters arrested at White House
– House GOP to put wind power credit under microscope
– Top Republican to Obama: Don’t bypass Congress on climate
– House GOP lawmakers cool on Obama 'Energy Trust' proposal
– Obama floats 'Energy Security Trust' in State of the Union address
– In address, a pledge to fight global warming

NEWS BITES:

API poll: Voters want Keystone XL

Sixty-nine percent of registered voters favor building the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, according to an American Petroleum Institute (API)-backed poll released Wednesday.

“The Keystone XL wraps new American jobs and energy security into a single common sense package. That’s why voters overwhelmingly back it, and that’s why the nation needs it and why the administration should approve it,” API CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement.

Of the 1,001 respondents, 83 percent said the pipeline would bolster energy security, and 92 percent said jobs should be a factor when considering the project.

The pipeline would bring oil from Canadian oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.

The respondents said they either supported or opposed the pipeline in response to a question that began, “Canada has 170 billion barrels of oil underground. A pipeline — the Keystone XL pipeline — has been proposed to help bring more of that Canadian oil into the U.S. for use in American refineries.”

The poll, which was conducted by Harris Interactive between Feb. 5 and Feb. 10, carried a 3 percent margin of error.

Stimulus funded leisure for battery company workers

Not the finest hour for the 2009 stimulus law. The Washington Post reports:

The Energy Department gave $150 million in economic recovery act funds to a battery company, LG Chem Michigan, which has yet to manufacture cells used in any vehicles sold to the public and whose workers passed time watching movies, playing board, card and video games or volunteering for animal shelters and community groups.

Those are the conclusions of a report released Wednesday morning by Energy Department Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman, who said that the grant to a subsidiary of South Korean giant LG “had not been managed effectively.”

Check out the whole story here.

Duke Energy CEO says utilities must revamp business model

Outgoing Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers said Wednesday that the utility is prepared for a slowdown in energy demand growth, adding, “Our industry is going to have to change its cost structure.”

The Associated Press reported the comments by Rogers, which came after the utility surpassed earnings expectations. The Charlotte, N.C.-based firm earned $435 million in net income in the fourth quarter.

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