E2 Morning Roundup: Poll to show support for green cars, pipeline accidents spur push for Hill action, averting a water crisis, California climate politics, and much more

A diverse panel

Representatives of the water panel also included officials from Mars, Inc., the Interior Department and other agencies, the Water Environment Federation and others. Its recommendations include improving existing tools like the Clean Water Act; a “full throttle” effort to develop improved technologies on supply and demand; better integrating water management and energy policy (power plants and oil-and-gas development uses lots of water); better data collection and a host of other ideas.

Representatives of the panel met with the White House Council on Environmental Quality Wednesday about the report.

BP’s Hayward: Failure to stem oil gusher was ‘unacceptable’

The oil giant’s departing CEO faced the music in the U.K Wednesday.

The Associated Press reports:

“Outgoing BP chief executive Tony Hayward said Wednesday that he understands the anger directed at the energy giant in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but he insisted that his company had a strong safety record and was not solely to blame for the disaster.”

“Testifying before a British parliamentary committee, Hayward acknowledged that BP had failed both to stop the spill and to plan adequately to respond to an accident of that scale.”

“’I understand why people feel the way they do, and there is little doubt that the inability of BP, and the industry, to intervene to seal the leak . . . was unacceptable,’ he said.”

Final seal on BP’s well could come soon

“With BP close to intercepting its stricken Gulf of Mexico well with a relief well, the government said Wednesday that the final sealing of the once-gushing well might occur this weekend,” the New York Times reports.

“Thad W. Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral who is leading the federal response effort, said in a briefing in Kenner, La., that the relief well was within 25 feet of the interception point, nearly 13,000 feet below the seabed.”

Head of refiners trade group rips Schwarzenegger

The Sacramento Bee checks in on climate politics getting nasty in California. Oil refiners are pouring money into the ballot fight to kill that state’s emissions law.

“The head of an oil industry trade group described California’s landmark climate change law as ‘political correctness gone mad’ and said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appears ‘hell bent on becoming a real life Terminator’ to the refining industry,” the Bee reports.

“In an e-mail letter sent Tuesday to members of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, Charles Drevna, the group’s president, said passage of Proposition 23, the ballot initiative that aims to roll back the state’s greenhouse gas reduction law, is key to stopping climate change laws in other states and would mean ‘the difference of life and death’ for the oil industry.”

U.S. to host big climate meeting in New York

Reuters looks at the upcoming meeting of the Major Economies Forum:

“The United States will host a meeting of the world’s biggest economies in New York to discuss climate change on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said.”

“The Major Economies Forum will bring together 16 of the world’s biggest economies next week with the 27-nation European Union to haggle over ways to fight global warming. It was formed to augment U.N. climate change talks. A deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions has so far eluded negotiators within the U.N. process.”

In case you missed it

E2 posts Wednesday included:

Interior requires permanent plugs for idle offshore oil-and-gas wells

NOAA: First eight-month period ties global heat record

EPA scuttles Bush-era voluntary climate program

Greens launch new campaign to protect EPA climate regs

Levin presses Obama to ‘promptly investigate’ China on green energy

Groups unify push for renewable power mandate

Van Hollen: No decision yet on keeping climate panel

Kerry forecasts cloudy future for comprehensive Senate climate bill

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