E2-Wire

Republicans have said they will attend Thursday's vote on Gina McCarthy after boycotting it last week.

A big new survey of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers finds a 97 percent consensus that humans are causing global warming.

Reuters has more on the findings here.

In other news ...

ON TAP THURSDAY: Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Democrats will try again to advance the stalled nomination of Gina McCarthy, President Obama’s choice to run the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last week Republicans scuttled a vote by refusing to attend, but Democrats plan to have enough of their own members present Thursday to ensure a quorum. 

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the committee's top Republican, confirmed through committee Republican spokesman Luke Bolar late Wednesday that some Republicans will attend the vote. Bolar said EPA committed to following up on some GOP questions regarding transparency, but that the agency's follow through remains important going forward.

Bloomberg BNA reported that Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) both said they plan to attend.

Still, Republicans have some outstanding concerns and want to extract more information from EPA.

“We have a lot of pending requests at EPA that haven’t been answered,” Sen. Jeff Session (R-Ala.) told reporters. “That is a very serious problem. This position is highly significant. It is just amazing, the power of the EPA.”

Republicans have turned the McCarthy nomination into a referendum over what they call inadequate "transparency" at the agency.

But the president’s allies are also seeking to land political blows in the battle over McCarthy, who is currently the EPA's top air quality regulator.

The nonprofit group created out of President Obama's reelection campaign is targeting Senate Republicans over their opposition to his nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Organizing for Action (OFA) on Wednesday pressed supporters to call out Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee a day ahead of the panel's second attempt to confirm Gina McCarthy, Obama's nominee to be EPA administrator.

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The nation's nuclear watchdog wants to issue new rules on transporting radioactive material to bring the United States in line with international standards.

The changes to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) rules would meet 2009 revisions to regulations from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear energy organization, as well as 2011 regulations from the Department of Transportation.

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."