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OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Obama to meet lawmakers with energy on agenda
STARTING TUESDAY: President Obama begins three days of visits to Capitol Hill on Tuesday by dropping in on Senate Democrats.
Energy is among the many topics that Obama will address in three days of meetings with Democrats and Republicans, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.
Top priorities include the budget and deficits, but also gun control and immigration, Carney said.
“Other items that are on his list of priorities include increasing our energy independence, the need to do something about the pace of nominations being confirmed and considered in the Senate — judicial nominations, in particular — as well as the need for Congress to take action on cybersecurity,” he said.
Obama will meet with House Republicans on Wednesday, and Senate Republicans and House Democrats in separate meetings on Thursday.
The most closely watched parts of Obama’s climate and energy agenda won’t go through Congress — he has pledged executive steps to confront global warming in the face of congressional gridlock.
But the president still has things he wants from Capitol Hill. For instance, Obama wants to set up an "Energy Security" trust fund with some royalty revenues from oil-and-gas production.
Sneak preview: A story running Tuesday in The Hill explains how political realities will likely foil attempts at passing comprehensive energy efficiency legislation.
Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed optimism about approving a significant bill. Among the shared goals is making U.S. firms more economically competitive by shedding energy costs.
But the parties have different ways of encouraging that behavior that might force lawmakers into settling for more modest measures.
THE REST OF TUESDAY’S AGENDA:
Nuke officials eye post-Fukushima future
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) begins its three-day annual conference Tuesday in Bethesda, Md.
NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane, as well as the NRC's four commissioners, will speak.
For more information, click here.
China’s energy in focus
The Center for Strategic and International Studies will hold an event about the energy sector in China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter (the U.S., historically No. 1, is in second place).
“The evolution of China's energy sector is one of the critical determinants of global energy markets and future greenhouse gas emissions,” an advisory states.
Han Wenke, the director general of China's Energy Research Institute, part of the National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China, and Yang Yufeng, a senior researcher for the institute, “will discuss China's near-term and long-term energy outlook,” according to CSIS.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire Monday and over the weekend ...
– Sen. Wyden presses Energy Dept. for info on gas price surge
– Sen. McCaskill: Report raises red flags about energy grant oversight
– US offers fresh sanctions warning over Iran-Pakistan pipeline
– Head of US Pacific command: Climate change is biggest threat
– Obama to focus on energy with Chicago-area lab visit
– League of Conservation Voters canvassing for Markey in Mass. Senate race
– US Chamber, oil-and-gas lobby go grassroots in Keystone pipeline battle
– Sen. Boxer calls for post-Fukushima safety report as anniversary approaches
– House Foreign Affairs subcommittee jumps into Keystone pipeline fray
NEWS BITES:
Oil-and-gas firm leaves EPA group
Devon Energy Corp. is exiting a voluntary Environmental Protection Agency emissions-reduction program over concerns that the agency used data from the effort to validate oil-and-gas sector regulations.
Greenwire first reported Monday that the Oklahoma City-based company would leave the Natural Gas STAR Program.
From Greenwire:
In the letter, (Devon Energy Executive Vice President for Public Affairs William) Whitsitt says emissions data submitted through the program "has been irresponsibly and inaccurately used to justify costly regulations" and that it has been misused by outside researchers and state officials threatening to sue EPA in pursuit of stricter methane regulations.
Click here for the full story.
Keystone pipeline delay fuels railroad shipments
The Wall Street Journal explores the increasing use of railroads to move Canadian oil sands. From their story:
Pipeline or not, lots of Canadian crude oil is headed to the U.S.
As the fight over the Keystone XL pipeline drags on, U.S. refining companies are turning to railroads to bring crude from Canada's oil sands to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. Shipments are set to double this year, to more than 200,000 barrels a day, according to one estimate, as Valero Energy Corp., Phillips 66 and other U.S. fuel companies make an end run around the much-delayed pipeline.
Journal subscribers can see the whole piece here.
Oil industry warns biofuels could raise gasoline prices
Fuel groups say increasing costs for a credit refiners purchase instead of blending certain types of biofuels could boost gas prices.
From the Financial Times:
US Federal law requires refiners and wholesalers to blend increasing amounts of biofuels each year into the petrol they sell. They can also buy credits as a substitute for meeting blending obligations. The credits are generated when biofuels are produced.
The price of these credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers, has jumped 20-fold to records this year as traders fear that stocks will be exhausted by 2014. Ethanol credits breached $1 last week, up from 5.25 cents on December 31, according to Argus Media.
Click here to read the rest.
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