E2-Wire

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, today reiterated his request for information on how climate czar Carol Browner helped negotiate an agreement with automakers on fuel efficiency standards last year.

That deal is “shrouded in secrecy and reeks of back room deals,” and may violate the Presidential Records Act, Issa wrote White House counsel Robert Bauer on Wednesday. See the letter here. Issa sent a letter seeking information on the auto deal in November to then White House counsel Greg Craig.

Under the agreement, automakers pledged to improve the gas mileage of their fleet of vehicles in return for a federal efficiency standard. Another party to the deal, California, agreed to delay its own auto fuel standards for the next several years.

In seeking the information, Issa notes a New York Times article that suggested Browner directed participants in the discussions to remain silent about the negotiations and to not put anything on paper. Issa maintains that direction may violate the PRA, which requires the White House to develop records policies to adequately document executive actions.

Three federal agencies – the Departments of Energy and the Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers – on Wednesday launched a new effort to boost development of a renewable energy source with an environmentally-checkered past: hydropower.

Hydro dams are the largest source of renewable electricity in the U.S. But hydropower has not enjoyed the green cachet of solar and wind energy due to its effects on fish and river ecosytems.

The three agencies signed a formal memorandum of understanding Wednesday that aims to expand power generation and environmental performance of existing federal dams.

The Obama administration plans to finalize tougher auto efficiency regulations next week, White House climate and energy czar Carol Browner said Wednesday.

The joint Transportation Department-EPA rules will boost car and light truck mileage standards to reach an average of 35.5 miles per gallon in 2016. They include first-time greenhouse gas requirements.

The standards represent a deal struck last year between the administration, automakers, and states that were planning to implement their own tailpipe greenhouse gas rules.

White House climate czar Carol Browner on Wednesday said the Obama administration is working hard to advance Senate climate and energy legislation, but declined to weigh in on a brewing Senate proposal to impose a carbon tax on motor fuels.

“It is our hope the Senate will act this year and we will do everything in our power to support that,” she told an energy forum hosted by U.S. News & World Report.

Browner’s comments, however, follow recent White House signals that while the administration wants to see action on energy this year, it is not mounting an all-out push and has bigger priorities. (See our stories here and here.)

Prominent Democrats are warning the administration not to close Yucca Mountain, the proposed permanent repository for nuclear waste.

Dow Jones quotes a letter lawmakers sent President Barack Obama this week: "We consider the department's actions contrary to the clear intent of Congress and regard your proposal as prematurely and unwisely removing deep geologic disposal from the options to be considered by the blue-ribbon commission on nuclear waste disposal."

The lawmakers include House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.).

Ben also posted something on this this morning. He notes that the members who signed the letter have something in common: they come from states with waste from nuclear weapons production.

A bipartisan group of House members whose states contain nuclear waste left over from Cold War weapons production hope to block the Energy Department from walking away from the proposed Yucca Mountain waste dump in Nevada.

The members on Tuesday introduced a “resolution of disapproval” that would prevent DoE from withdrawing the Yucca Mountain license application from Nuclear Regulatory Commission review.

The Obama administration is abandoning the long-delayed Yucca Mountain project. The Energy Department has instead appointed a “blue ribbon commission” to explore long-term solutions for managing commercial and military nuclear waste.

The Senate trio – John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) – trying to salvage a big climate change and energy bill this year treated 19 colleagues to a PowerPoint presentation about their upcoming plan Tuesday afternoon.

Kerry later met privately with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Kerry, who is usually talkative about the climate effort, said rather little after that session but proclaimed Reid backs their effort.

‘He’s very supportive. We have been working with Senator Reid for months now, and he has said he wants to get this done,” Kerry said after talking with Reid in the majority leader’s Capitol office.



Here are a few tidbits from staking out the late afternoon Capitol meeting that Kerry, Graham and Lieberman held for the broader group of senators.

Senior Senate lawmakers are holding plenty of meetings on climate and energy legislation this week, but it remains to be seen whether a big bill will gain a spot on the post-health care agenda this year.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) plan to brief a number of colleagues late Tuesday afternoon about the broad climate and energy bill they’re crafting.

And Tuesday evening, Kerry is slated to meet with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Then, on Wednesday, Reid plans to host a broader meeting of the chairmen of the various committees of jurisdiction on energy and climate policy.

The chief executive of oil giant BP said Tuesday that Congress needs to find a better way of maintaining jobs than “preserving them in the coal industry.”

Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive officer since 2007, said in a speech on energy security and climate change at the Peterson Institute for International Economics that it was “somewhat surprising” coal plants were being built in the United States given concerns about climate change.

Hayward said Congress instead should be promoting natural gas, which emits as few as half the carbon emissions that coal does. He said the effort in the Senate to write a new climate legislation appeared to be more equitable to the natural gas industry than the bill the House passed last June. BP has significant natural gas resources, and would likely stand to benefit from climate legislation that encouraged more gas use. Natural gas makes up more than half of BP’s total energy production, according to the company’s Web site.

Lisa Camooso Miller, a spokeswoman for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a group that includes coal producers and users, said Hayward’s comments were “no surprise” given the importance of natural gas to BP’s business.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu used a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday to tout the potential of small, modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) that the Energy Department is trying to get off the ground in the U.S.

“Small modular reactors would be less than one-third the size of current plants. They have compact designs and could be made in factories and transported to sites by truck or rail. SMRs would be ready to ‘plug and play’ upon arrival,” he writes.

The op-ed touts provisions in the fiscal year 2011 White House budget request aimed at helping get designs for these small units licensed for commercial use. Modular construction would help reduce the capital costs of bringing new nuclear power generation on-line, and the units would be suitable for electric grids that can't accommodate large nuclear plants, Chu noted.