Energy/Environment

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.) said Wednesday that the Obama administration’s battery program in the federal stimulus package cost $158,556 per job created.

“President Obama’s failed stimulus spending program contributed to America’s dangerously-high $16 trillion national debt and record federal deficits of over $1 trillion year after year,” Thune said in a statement Wednesday. “Spending $158,556 per job, many of which were temporary, was a waste of taxpayer dollars and failed to create the economic growth the president promised when he jammed his stimulus through Congress.”

Rep. Edward Markey (Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said Tuesday that "super-storm Sandy" is the latest evidence that climate change will continue to lead to "extreme weather" conditions in the United States.

"For this super-storm to occur so late in the storm season, reach such fury and have the kinds of flooding impacts that we are seeing is fully consistent with what scientists have told us we should expect due to global warming," Markey said. "It's time to admit the obvious fact that climate change is here.

"Warmer water in the Atlantic is fueling stronger storms, the seas are higher and the dramatic changes in the Arctic are potentially altering the path of storms hundreds of miles away," he added. "Climate change is no longer some far-off issue; it's at our doorstep. We must consider how to address the underlying factors that are fueling these extreme weather events."

FEMA’s coffers are near full because the storm struck at the beginning of fiscal 2013. 

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the Obama administration is misleading Americans about increasing offshore energy production.

“There is no disputing the fact that our nation’s domestic energy production on federal lands is far lower than it was before this administration took office, yet they continue to manipulate the data,” Vitter said in a statement Thursday.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) this week asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reduce lead emissions from general aviation planes more quickly by stepping up requirements for using unleaded fuels.

Waxman said these planes, which make up a significant portion of U.S. flights and include everything from small planes to corporate jets, have been exempt from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules on leaded fuel. This exemption means that about half of all lead air emissions in the U.S. come from general aviation planes.

The House Oversight Committee chairman claims lost tax revenue could also drive up cost of similar loan to Fisker Automotive.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) dared the Obama administration on Thursday to prove that its $2 billion in grants for electric vehicles led to the employment of “thousands of American workers.”

Grassley’s comment came after one grant recipient, A123 Systems, filed for bankruptcy this week. A123 Systems made batteries for electric cars, an industry President Obama has touted as a successful government investment during his reelection campaign.

Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) led a bipartisan group of 40 senators Thursday calling for the Obama administration to release federal heating aid.

The senators sent a bipartisan letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius urging her to release Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds as quickly as possible to help Americans struggling to pay their energy bills as winter approaches.

Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and John Thune (S.D.) demanded more information Thursday on a $249.1 million federal grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the 2009 stimulus, to a battery manufacturer that they say could soon be owned by a Chinese investor.

Grassley and Thune sent a letter this week to the chief executive officer of A123 Systems, a battery company based in Massachusetts, questioning whether U.S. tax dollars benefited a Chinese company.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday to waive the corn-ethanol requirements as part of the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) because of the difficult farming season.

“In the face of corn shortages and escalating prices brought on by wide-spread droughts throughout the United States, I urge you to exercise your waiver authority to modify the corn-ethanol requirements for the Renewable Fuel Standards,” Hatch wrote in a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.