E2-Wire

The federal environmental watchdog needs a better strategy to update its toxic chemical regulations, a government audit has concluded.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the Environmental Protection Agency's attempts to reform its chemical oversight found that the EPA has not developed planning practices to guide its work or strategies to directly address upcoming challenges. 

Outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday that new fuel economy standards he helped usher in with President Obama are “a big deal” that will outlast both of them.

“That will be part of President Obama’s legacy. What a legacy — cleaning up the air in America, getting cleaner burning cars,” LaHood said at a news conference in which Obama tapped Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to lead the Transportation Department (DOT).

The updated Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards require cars to get 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. They were finalized last August.

The Obama administration is pushing to protect public lands that could be used for producing renewable energy.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Tuesday will publish a regulation in the Federal Register to limit mining claims near areas that have been identified as potential sites for wind or solar energy production or that are included in pending permits.

The move will prohibit claims for mining operations on a renewable energy proposal's right-of-way lands while the BLM considers the application. The bureau has had an interim rule on the books since 2011, but the adoption of the final rule will give the government a long-term mechanism to safeguard those lands.

The resolution from Rep. Barbara Lee urges Congress to use “gender-specific frameworks” when crafting climate change policy.

Ford Motor Co. now includes the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline among the topics in the company’s lobbying portfolio.

The auto giant’s first quarter lobbying report lists the proposed pipeline that would bring oil from Alberta’s oil sands projects across the border en route to Gulf Coast refineries.

The filing specifically lists the “Northern Route Approval Act,” which is pending, GOP-led House legislation that would authorize construction of TransCanada Corp.’s pipeline.

Iran's crude oil exports hit a 26-year low last year because of U.S. and international sanctions, the government's independent energy information agency said.

The latest round of sanctions cut the country's net estimated oil export revenue down to only $69 billion in 2012, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – 27 percent less than in 2011. Oil exports account for more than half of government revenue.

“Sanctions affecting investment in Iran's oil sector have also been tightened, resulting in cancellation of new projects by several foreign companies; they also negatively affected existing projects,” the EIA concluded. “Following the implementation of sanctions in late-2011 and mid-2012, Iranian oil production dropped dramatically.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says methane leaks from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, are not as large as previously estimated, The Associated Press explains.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says ocean surface temperatures in the Northeast have hit a 150-year high. The Bangor Daily News has the story here.

The San Antonio Express-News reports that a Czech Republic firm plans to use mesquite wood to produce electricity.

The Ohio EPA wants more answers regarding a series of pipeline construction spills, The Columbus Dispatch reports.

Western sanctions on Iran have brought that nation's oil exports to a 26-year low, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Foxx would replace outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

President Obama’s former climate czar is confident the administration will limit carbon-dioxide emissions from the nation’s existing coal-fired power plants.

A proposed mine near Alaska’s coast that’s garnered Capitol Hill attention would harm a habitat that houses nearly half the world’s sockeye salmon, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Friday.

The EPA’s revised draft assessment of the Pebble Mine project’s potential impact on the aquatic ecosystem in Bristol Bay, Alaska determined the mine would destroy 90 miles of streams and up to 4,800 acres of wetland salmon habitat.