Energy/Environment

The House convenes at 9 a.m. Thursday to begin work on two bills that Republicans believe will help increase U.S. oil exploration.

The House will take up a rule governing debate on H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1230. H.R. 1229, called the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, would require the Department of the Interior to act on Gulf drilling permit applications.

House Democrats on Tuesday morning indicated they were preparing alternatives to two bills the House is expected to take up Thursday aimed at increasing offshore drilling for oil and gas.

Speaking on the House floor, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said he would offer an amendment later in the week that would increase taxes on oil companies by $37 billion and give that money to licensed U.S. drivers. Connolly said that change would amount to about $185 per driver, equivalent to a reduction in gas prices of about 27 cents per gallon.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Friday released an estimate that said H.R. 1230, the "Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act," would bring in an estimated $40 million in revenues over the next decade, and would cost just $2 million to implement.

The bill is expected to be on the floor next week, and would require the administration to conduct offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Virginia. CBO said requiring lease sales would not affect revenues related to the Gulf, because the Department of the Interior already has an expectation of making these sales.

The House Rules Committee on Wednesday afternoon updated its agenda for next week by adding another energy bill, implying the House could act on two pieces of legislation by next week.

On Wednesday, the committee will meet at 3 p.m. to approve rules for H.R. 1229, the "Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act," and H.R. 1230, the "Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act."

H.R. 1230 is the newly added bill for the week, and it would require the administration to conduct offshore lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and near Virginia.

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Thursday signaled that the House Energy & Commerce Committee would continue to press the issue of reopening the Yucca Mountain Waste Repository in Nevada as a storage site for nuclear waste, fresh from his tour of the facility this week.

According to the Carmi Times, Shimkus said after his tour that the committee is "taking on an aggressive role of doing our constitutional duty of government oversight of this administration and its actions."

Those oversight activities will start on May 4, when the Energy & Commerce Committee's Energy and Power subcommittee and the Environment and the Economy subcommittee, which Shimkus leads, hold a joint hearing on the role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in America's energy future. House staffers said the hearing would give Shimkus and other members a chance to testify about their visit to Yucca Mountain and "discuss further action."

The House Rules Committee on Thursday announced it will hold two early meetings next week in order to approve rules for four bills that will be considered on the House floor later in the week.

On May 2, the committee will meet at 5 p.m. to approve a rule for H.R. 1213, which would end federal funding to help states set up health insurance exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that ending these grants would save $14 billion over the next decade.

House Republicans on Tuesday notified members of a process for accepting amendments next week to H.R. 1229, a bill that would require the secretary of the Interior to act on Gulf of Mexico drilling permits.

Laying out the amendment process indicates that the bill will be taken up next week, although two other energy bills are also expected to be considered as early as next week.

The House Rules Committee said amendments to H.R. 1229, the "Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act," must submit language to the committee, in hard copy and electronically, by 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 3.

Rules also said, however, that it might "grant a rule that could limit the amendment process for floor consideration of H.R. 1229."

Republicans will begin work on three bills they say would break a de facto ban on new energy exploration.

The Senate split 50-50 on an amendment that would have permanently blocked the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.

While most Democrats on Wednesday opposed the GOP's bill to restrict the Environmental Protection Agency authorities, three Democrats spoke in favor of it on the House floor and said failure to rein in the EPA would hurt job creation in rural areas of the country.

The House was debating H.R. 910, which would prohibit the EPA's regulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) was the first Democrat to speak out in favor of the bill, and rejected the idea put forward by other Democrats that the bill should be called the "Dirty Air Act." He said letting one agency decide how to regulate GHG is putting too much authority into a single agency.

"No single government agency, however, is sufficiently positioned to tackle the complex solution that's required to address carbon emissions," he said. "The answer has to be multi-pronged."