Energy/Environment

The executive order follows a new assessment from the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu will testify on the Solyndra loan guarantee before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Republicans have been eager to probe the $535 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra, the now-bankrupt California solar-panel company.

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Dan Coats (R-Ind.) on Thursday called on members of the Senate to support bipartisan legislation that would extend the compliance deadlines for two key Environmental Protection Agency rules.

Manchin and Coats urged support for their bill just minutes after the Senate rejected a proposal from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to disapprove of one of these rules — the cross-border air-pollution rule. The other rule that would be delayed by the bill, S. 1833, is the “utility MACT” rule.

In a 41-56 vote, the Senate rejected Paul's measure to overturn a rule targeting cross-state pollution.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said Tuesday evening that she would vote against a resolution from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that would overturn an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule aimed at ensuring upwind states don't pollute the air of downwind states.

"I appreciate my friend, the senator from Kentucky, for bringing his concerns forward through this resolution. However, this is an issue that I have been extensively involved in as … New Hampshire's attorney general, and I believe this resolution is misguided."

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) on Tuesday said the Obama administration's five-year offshore oil-and-gas leasing plan would starve the U.S. of needed energy and force the country to import more oil, and formally asked the Interior Department to reconsider its plan.

"Based on this plan, Americans should conclude that the Interior Department believes that the United States' overall energy needs will be reduced over the next 5 years," Vitter wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "By reducing the amount of energy production available, your 5-year plan seems to contradict the president's 'Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future,' which was intended to reduce oil imports by a third by 2025."

The plan formalizes the administration’s retreat from opening areas off the Atlantic Coast and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The House on Friday afternoon spiked two Democratic amendments to the Coast Guard authorization bill that would have maintained some degree of state flexibility over the discharge of ballast water.

The underlying bill is H.R. 2838, which includes not only funding for the Coast Guard through 2014, but also includes language that would set a single, national standard for ballast water discharge for commercial vessels. Republicans say a single standard is needed because now, there are two federal standards and more than two dozen state and tribal standards to meet, making compliance difficult.

House Democrats on Friday morning said they strongly oppose a proposal to set a single, nation-wide standard for the discharge of ballast water from ocean-going vessels.

Republicans are proposing a single standard in H.R. 2838, which would reauthorize the Coast Guard through 2014. While the bill keeps key Coast Guard personnel at current levels, Democrats said the inclusion of language on ballast water discharge, which would affect all commercial ships, is an attempt to sneak in language that would damage the environment.

Senate Republicans have put forward a transportation bill that would fund highway infrastructure spending, highway safety programs and public transportation needs for the next two years, and pay for it with a $40 billion rescission to unobligated federal funds.

The Senate on Thursday afternoon will vote on a motion to proceed to this bill, S. 1786, after the Senate votes on a motion to proceed to the Democratic alternative. The Democratic bill would spend $60 billion on transportation infrastructure programs and pay for it with a new tax on income earned above $1 million.