OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Senate Energy Committee holds Interior nominee confirmation hearing

COMING THURSDAY: Sally Jewell, President Obama's pick to run the Interior Department, will face the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday for her confirmation hearing.

Jewell is currently the chief executive for outdoor gear giant REI. If confirmed as Interior secretary, she would oversee natural resources, conservation efforts, parks and mineral development on federal offshore and onshore lands

While green and industry groups have been generally supportive of Jewell, one powerful Energy committee member is threatening to hold up her nomination.

That would be ranking member Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). She is considering holding up the nomination to ensure approval of an Alaskan road to connect a remote Aleutian village to an all-weather airport used for medical evacuations.

Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service said last month that it intended to deny a proposed land swap that would enable the road to run through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge.

For more on the hearing, click here — and be sure to follow E2-Wire's coverage Thursday.

ALSO ON TAP THURSDAY:

Panel talks energy infrastructure

Former federal regulators, pipeline trade officials and others will promote expanding energy infrastructure connecting Canada and the United States during a Thursday forum.

The proposed Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil sands pipeline will likely be a focal point for the forum, which the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is hosting.

More broadly, the event will explore the regulatory and investment challenges large energy infrastructure pipelines face.

Speakers include: Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, former Environmental Protection Agency official Roger Martella, former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jim Hoecker and Association of Oil Pipe Lines President Andrew Black.

For more on the event, which will be webcast, click here.

Forum discusses coal in US, China

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Energy and Climate Program will delve into issues regarding U.S. and Chinese collaboration on coal development and exports.

From an advisory:

China and the United States are the world’s two largest coal producing economies and account together for more than 60 percent of global coal consumption. Rising coal consumption and imports in China, especially, pose important energy, environmental, and climate challenges not only domestically, but also for the rest of the world.

For more on the event, click here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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

— Lawmakers want energy regulator to turn over findings of natural gas rate probes
— Canadian official: Keystone rejection wouldn’t harm US-Canada relationship
— GM chief calls on Obama to create new energy commission
— EIA chief: Sequester's ax spares key energy data reports
— Sierra Club taps new political director
— No retreat from Gulf for BP
— BP CEO: ‘Peak oil’ talk quieted by abundance
— DC snowstorm buries climate change hearing
— BP CEO won’t hold press event Wednesday

NEWS BITES:

Christie takes shot at former EPA chief

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) on Wednesday slammed recently resigned Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, according to PolitickerNJ.

Christie was criticizing Jackson for her time as commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, which she led until President Obama tapped her for the EPA post in 2009.

“Of course, the person who ran that department then went to make the EPA the most business unfriendly organization in America,” said Christie, who was speaking at a commercial real estate policy event. “Only if they listened to us before they put Lisa Jackson in charge of the EPA.”

Jackson left the EPA last month. Obama on Monday nominated Gina McCarthy, who runs EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, to replace Jackson.

Rep. Markey floats fish fraud bill

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation Wednesday aimed at preventing mislabeled seafood from reaching consumers' plates.

The bill follows on a report by advocacy group Oceana that said one-third of U.S. seafood is improperly identified.

The legislation would require that more information about fish be made available to consumers. It also would give federal agencies more authority to penalize fraudulent shippers.

“From tackle to table, this bill makes the entire seafood supply chain more transparent and trustworthy," Markey, the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said in a Wednesday statement.

Other co-sponsors include Reps. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), John Tierney (D-Mass.), Bill Keating (D-Mass.), Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.). Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) plans to introduce a Senate version.

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