E2-Wire

A Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing quickly turned into a referendum on energy development on Indian lands on Wednesday.

As Republicans on the panel pressed Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to encourage Indian tribes to develop more oil and natural gas resources, the department chief reiterated the administration's commitment to developing renewable energy alongside fossil fuels.

In her prepared testimony, Jewell said "the Department is committed to assisting tribes in expanding on Indian lands renewable, low cost, reliable and secure energy supplies as well as safe and responsible oil and gas development in accordance with tribal objectives."

On some Indian reservations, claimed Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), "oil and gas and coal reserves held in trust by the United States for the tribe, for its members, represent by far the number one best opportunity for prosperity for that tribe in that location."

Megan Bel, a top aide to Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), has left Capitol Hill to become the senior director of government and political affairs at the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA).

Bel is joining NOIA after several years as legislative director for Scalise, a strong supporter of offshore energy development.

“Megan Bel served five tireless years for the people of southeast Louisiana, and she will be deeply missed. Her hard work, dedication, and passion for Louisiana serves as a model for all Hill staffers,” said Scalise, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The sequester will cost the federal government money by delaying oil and gas lease sales on public lands, Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee said Wednesday.

The automatic, across-the-board spending cuts will result in a loss of $150 million in federal revenue through slower permitting at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and canceled lease sales for oil and gas development, Democrats said in a report.

“Instead of saving money, the sequester is costing Americans money and job opportunities as the Bureau of Land Management is forced to slow down approval of oil and gas drilling permits and cancel lease sales to meet the spending reductions required by the sequester,” the report said.

Dems say the confirmation process for McCarthy and other nominees could drag on too long without rules changes.

Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) on Wednesday accused the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of exempting left-leaning political groups and green energy producers from various fees and fines that it routinely assesses to right-learning groups.

Whitfield, who chairs the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy & Power, called the EPA's actions a "pattern of conduct in which this administration rewards its friends and punishes its opponents."

An influential business group is backing the energy efficiency bill sponsored by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), which could improve its chances of overcoming the gridlock on energy legislation in recent years.

The new Business Roundtable letter backing the plan arrives as Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is urging Senate floor action in May.

“By addressing residential and commercial buildings, federal facilities, and industrial processes; promoting public-private partnerships; and providing seed money for state and local government efforts, your bill will help build on the progress we have made in the past several decades toward using energy more wisely,” the group said in a May 14 letter to the bill’s sponsors.

The bill faces an uncertain future in the House, were lawmakers are concerned about the discretion it would give Obama.

The GAO report says stronger storms and other effects of climate change threaten local roads and bridges.

Bloomberg dives into the oil-pricing mechanism that European investigators believe Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Statoil may have manipulated. Read more...

Many countries that rely heavily on revenue from mining and oil-and-gas production are plagued by government mismanagement, secrecy and corruption, a new report finds.

The Revenue Watch Institute’s detailed “Resource Governance Index” released Wednesday says this “striking governance deficit” prevents the public in many resource-rich nations from benefiting from energy development and mining.

“The lives of more than a billion citizens could be transformed if their governments managed their oil, gas and minerals in a more open, accountable manner,” the group said in releasing the peer-reviewed report that analyzed 58 nations.

The worst-performing nations are clustered in the Middle East and Africa, the report notes, though the lowest score went to Myanmar.