West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller, a Democrat, has formally requested that a Senate committee investigate the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 workers. Here’s his letter.
“[Last] week’s accident at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, shows that coal mining remains an unacceptably dangerous profession,” Rockefeller wrote to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Monday.
Southern states could meet their electricity needs for the next 20 years without having to build so much as a wind turbine by adopting “aggressive” energy conservation programs, a study released Monday states.
Electricity demand in the South would otherwise grow by 16 percent by 2030, requiring an additional 49 Gigawatts of electricity. That would likely require more nuclear, natural gas and coal plants. But by making energy efficiency improvements in residential homes, commercial properties and at industrial plants, consumers in the South could get by on what they currently have, according to the study, a joint effort by Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
“We believe the South is rich terrain for energy efficiency,” said Marilyn Brown, of Georgia Tech and a leading author of the report.
The Interior Department on Monday announced it is reviewing whether royalty rates that oil-and-gas producers pay for projects on federal lands and in federal waters are too low.
An upcoming study will examine financial rules for oil-and-gas in other countries and compare them with U.S. practices.
The department, in announcing the study, cited a Government Accountability Office report several years ago that found the U.S. federal government has a lower “government take” than many other oil-and-gas producing countries.
The Senate will break at 3:30 pm to hold a moment of silence for the
victims of the deadliest mine disaster in decades that occurred in West
Virginia last week.
Twenty-nine workers at the Upper Big Branch mine were killed when an explosion ripped through the facility. Congress is investigating the incident, along with federal agencies, in the wake of accusations that the mine had safety issues.
Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took to the Senate floor Monday afternoon to
announce the moment of silence shortly after the upper chamber
reconvened after a two-week Easter recess.
Cane-ethanol makers are firing back at producers that prefer corn.
As domestic corn ethanol makers announced a $2.5 million ad campaign to support a 45 cent tax credit and a 54 cent tariff protection they get, a group of sugar-ethanol producers from Brazil, pitching their product as a “sweeter alternative," said it is paying for a more modest campaign to end the subsidies.
A new study by the Institute for Policy Integrity praises climate legislation sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) – a bill that has received less attention than the upcoming proposal by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
The Institute – a think tank attached to New York University’s law school – says the Cantwell-Collins plan would avoid large regional cost disparities while creating strong incentives for renewable energy and emissions-cutting technologies.
Their bill would boost the construction sector by spurring solar panel installation and home efficiency retrofits, while demand for products like solar cells, wind turbines and more efficient heating and cooling systems would rise, the Institute said.
The ethanol industry trade group Growth Energy on Monday rolled out a $2.5 million, six-month TV ad buy aimed at selling ethanol as a green alternative to oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela.
“It’s a multi-million dollar campaign to get the facts to the people who have only heard one side of the story until now,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy, at a press conference Monday. “We are going on offense and we are going to tell the real story.”
The buy consists of six brief spots on four cable networks -- Fox, MSNBC, CNN, and its sister network HLN (formerly Headline News). The ads tout what Growth Energy calls various benefits of ethanol. The ads can be viewed here.
ClearView, in a research note today, look more closely at the effect of the looming Senate battle to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. They say that a “consensus” nominee would leave enough time for the upcoming Kerry-Graham-Lieberman climate bill, while a controversial pick could “chill” the climate effort and consume the remaining Senate calendar. They write:
Even mild controversy could diminish prospects for a climate bill, because any non-consensus nominee could consume the attention those Senators who are leading, or providing strong support to, the climate efforts that have gathered momentum during the past several months. For example, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been active during past reviews of judicial nominees. Should Senator Graham become embroiled in a lengthy Court fight, the “tri-partisan” team now driving climate and energy compromise legislation – Senator Graham and Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I/D-CT) – could lose the necessary focus of one of its leaders.
* The Department of Labor is eyeing new powers for mine safety regulators.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is seeking to give mine safety regulators more authority following the West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 workers. One area officials are exploring is whether the Mine Safety and Health Administration should be granted subpoena power, Solis tells the New York Times in an interview.
“We know that there are some areas of the law that probably could be strengthened, and so we’re going to be reviewing those areas — for example, looking at powers to subpoena,” she said. “We don’t have the authority to shut down a mine as easily and as quickly as the public might think, and I think those are the loopholes that we want to close.”
