Energy/Environment

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Wednesday that he “won’t miss” outgoing Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar.

“I wish Ken Salazar, a Senate classmate, all the best,” Vitter said in a statement Wednesday. “But I honestly won't miss him as Interior secretary.”

New York lawmakers asked the Obama administration to fund the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the State Energy Program (SEP), which help reduce energy bills.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said weatherizing can greatly improve the efficiency of buildings and homes and reduce energy costs in cold months.

"There's lots of spending in these bills that has nothing to do with the disaster," said Rep. Tom McClintock.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday that she would introduce legislation next week aimed at preventing the transfer of research funded by the Department of Energy to companies based in non-allied countries.

Her bill is partly a reaction to the proposed purchase of A123 Systems, a U.S. battery maker that filed for bankruptcy. A Chinese company, Wanxiang America Corp., is trying to buy the company, but the sale still needs approval from the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The Senate passed a bill allowing the U.S. Attorney General to give states and localities more grants to audit their backlogs of DNA tests in the cases of sexual assaults.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) introduced the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Registry Act or SAFER Act — S. 3250 — which amends the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act to authorize the Attorney General to make grants to states or local governments to conduct audits of samples of sexual assault evidence that are awaiting testing, provided such government submits an audit plan that includes a good-faith estimate of the number of such samples.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) countered Republican arguments that the Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill has stimulus hidden in it — he called it “mitigation.”

The Senate started consideration this week of H.R. 1, a bill to provide $60 billion to Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts, but some conservatives have said the bill has unnecessary spending measures, during a time when lawmakers are desperately trying to reduce spending.

“Any proposal that doesn’t have to do with the storm should not be in here,” Schumer said on the floor Monday. “There is mitigation money … You rebuild but you rebuild in a way so that if there is another storm you don’t lose as much.”

The Senate passed a bill Thursday easing federal regulations on the manufacture of coolers, water heaters and other appliances.

A group of Republicans and Democrats in the House has proposed a resolution saying Congress opposes any effort by the federal government to set up a carbon tax on gasoline, coal or natural gas, arguing it would only lead to increased joblessness.

The resolution, from Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.), states that a carbon tax on gasoline would have a "dramatic, immediate impact on transportation costs, with the greatest impact being felt by low-income Americans and their families." It also says that the price of electricity derived from coal and natural gas would increase if a carbon tax were applied to those fuels.

"The time for the waiting game is over," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said on the Senate floor late Thursday.

The Senate passed an amendment to the defense bill Thursday that would strike the prohibition on biofuel refinery construction.

The amendment allows the Department of Defense to invest in refineries for “advanced” biofuels through a joint Agriculture, Energy and Navy Departments agreement.