Energy/Environment

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.) said Tuesday that he has received assurances directly from Exxon Mobil that the oil company will stay in Arkansas until an oil spill in the city of Mayflower is completely cleaned up.

"I spoke with Exxon Mobil folks last night and this morning," Griffin said in an interview with KARK 4 television. "They're there every day on the ground, working with what's called the unified command, which is local, state, federal officials all together.

A bipartisan group of senators told the Obama administration Thursday to stop the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) from “shriveling up and leaving millions of Americans out in the cold.”

WAP provides grants to states to help low-income families save money on their heating and cooling bills by weatherizing their homes to make them more energy-efficient.

The Senate voted 62-37 in favor of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in a Senate budget amendment.

The Senate went on record against imposing taxes on industrial carbon emissions in a pair of symbolic votes Friday, providing clear evidence that major climate change legislation lacks political traction.

Lawmakers voted 41-58 to reject Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-R.I.) proposal to ensure that revenue from any carbon tax be returned to the U.S. public through deficit reduction, reducing other rates and other “direct” benefits.

Thirteen Democrats joined 45 Republicans opposing the Whitehouse amendment to the nonbinding budget plan, including some Democrats facing reelection in 2014 such as Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Mark Warner (Va.).

The Whitehouse amendment went head-to-head with Sen. Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) anti-carbon tax amendment to ensure that any future carbon tax legislation requires 60 votes to pass.

House Democrats will make a series of speeches on the House floor in the coming weeks to call for a congressional response to climate change.

"There are a number of us who plan on speaking every day on the House floor on the need for Congress to take action on climate change," Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said on the House floor.

A group of Republican senators asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delay a decision on whether to list the lesser prairie-chicken as a threatened species.

In a letter to agency director Daniel Ashe, Sens. John Cornyn (Texas), Ted Cruz (Texas), James Inhofe (Okla.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Pat Roberts (Kan.) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) requested that the decision on the lesser prairie-chicken be delayed for six months in order to allow states to prepare.

The House next week will consider two bills aimed expanding hydropower production in the United States.

Members will take up the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act, H.R. 267, which would ease federal regulations for the purpose of allowing more hydropower generation along rivers across the country.

Alaska Sens. Mark Begich (D) and Lisa Murkowski (R) introduced two bills Thursday to prevent the sale of genetically altered salmon.

“We cannot afford to experiment with the world’s largest wild salmon stocks without the certainty that these fake fish won’t pose a serious environmental risk, especially to wild salmon and their habitat,” Begich said Thursday. “I am introducing these bills to prevent against science experiments ending up on the plates of Alaska families.”

Issa's bill would rename 3.4 million square nautical miles of ocean as the Ronald Wilson Reagan Exclusive Economic Zone.

Sens. David Vitter (R-La.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder why he is “targeting” oil and gas companies by prosecuting them for the unintentional death of birds.

The senators said on the Senate floor Wednesday that they sent Holder a letter asking him why he is prosecuting oil and gas companies for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) by killing birds, yet he is not going after wind energy companies.

“This is not even handed enforcement of the law,” Vitter said. “What that is, is targeting one type of energy producer.”