E2-Wire

A prominent Canadian environmental think tank called the Pembina Institute has established a beachhead in Washington, D.C. to expand its work on U.S. climate policy.

The group on Thursday announced the hiring of Danielle Droitsch to be its U.S. policy director, a move that signals an escalation of the group’s fight against expansion of Canadian oil sands development.

The issue is linked to U.S. climate policy because the U.S. is the major export market for Canadian oil, and federal and state global warming policies could discourage use of high-carbon energy sources.

* A search-and-rescue effort is ongoing after an explosion at a Gulf of Mexico oil rig.

The Coast Guard is continuing to search for 11 missing oil workers following the explosion at a large rig off the Louisiana coast Tuesday, the Associated Press and other outlets report.

About 100 survivors docked early Thursday. From AP:

The Obama administration is planning curbs of greenhouse gas emissions, prodding Congress to move forward on climate change legislation.

The speaker told the Senate leader she is “fine” with the Senate taking up immigration reform before climate change legislation.

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) said Wednesday his support for Senate climate legislation was contingent on a "comprehensive" preemption of state climate laws and federal greenhouse gas regulations.

That position is likely to upset state officials who earlier in the day warned that state greenhouse gas efforts were an essential part of a national commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Federal preemption could frustrate their own efforts to conserve energy or support renewable energy production, the officials said. Environmental groups also want EPA to retain its authority to regulate greenhouse gases.

In a statement, Voinovich said that he and some of his colleagues were crafting an amendment to block states and agencies from acting on greenhouse gases. The preemption language would have to go "well beyond language included in previous climate bills," Voinovich said.

Senate climate legislation should tread lightly on state efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, state officials reiterated Wednesday.

“We need to put down a marker here and remind senators they will not have an effective climate program without the states,” said Mary Nichols, the chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board.

Nichols joined other state officials in a conference call Wednesday morning to warn that federal preemption language in Senate climate legislation could block state energy conservation programs or renewable production mandates that also lower greenhouse gases.

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The White House on Wednesday announced plans to spread $452 million to over two dozen communities nationwide for energy efficiency retrofit programs.

The selection of projects that will receive the Energy Department funding – which was provided in last year’s big stimulus law – is one of several administration actions pegged to Thursday’s 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Vice-President Joe Biden, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other administration environmental officials will discuss the energy efficiency effort and other Earth Day-related actions at the White House later today.

* Challenges emerge to Senate climate bill days before its release

New challenges emerged for a Senate climate bill that is nearing release after months of backroom negotiations.

The Houston Chronicle lays out a couple. The question of how to curb emissions from the transportation sector remains a sticking point apparently, and some senators are warning the bill's authors not to divert royalties from offshore drilling to state instead of federal coffers.

“The challenges came as Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., enter the final stretch of months of negotiations aimed at producing a broad compromise bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions, expand domestic oil and natural gas production, and boost nuclear power,” the Chronicle’s Jennifer Dlouhy writes.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is trying to preempt politically damaging claims that upcoming Senate climate legislation would raise gasoline taxes, claiming recent speculation about it is inaccurate.

“There is no gas tax, never was a gas tax, will not be a gas tax, I don’t know where that came from, but it is just wrong. Period,” Kerry told reporters in the Capitol Tuesday.

He later added: “There is no gas tax, we didn’t contemplate a gas tax, there will not be a gas tax, the gas tax is 18.4 cents today and it will be that when this bill is passed.”