OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Sen. Scott Brown faces attacks on climate stance

Brown last June voted for Sen. Lisa
Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) failed
measure to overturn EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse
gases. But the legislative fight is expected to flare again in the new
Congress.

While House Republicans are likely to succeed in
steering anti-EPA measures through that chamber, the narrowly Democratic
Senate – where many Republicans and some centrist Democrats oppose
climate rules – will be a pivotal battleground. 

Measures to
outright remove EPA’s power are unlikely to gain traction, but Sen. Jay
Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and other lawmakers are pressing for votes on
delaying EPA’s rules for power plants and other industrial plants for
two years.

NEWS BITES:

House Energy and Commerce Dems
get organized

Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee will meet Wednesday afternoon to make decisions about who will
be the ranking members on subcommittees and the subcommittee rosters,
according to Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the full
committee who formerly chaired the panel.

The

full committee – Republicans and Democrats – holds a formal
organizational meeting Thursday.

Green gets Waxman’s nod for
top energy subcommittee slot

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told
reporters in the Capitol Tuesday evening that he hopes to be ranking
member of the Energy and Power Subcommittee. Green said Waxman
has pledged his support.

Salazar, Simpson to have
‘wild’ discussion

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who is
chairman of the Appropriations Committee panel that sets Interior
Department spending, told reporters that he’s speaking with Interior
Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday.

Among the agenda items:
Interior’s recently

announced “wild lands” policy, which is a plan to conserve
certain regions that Congress has not formally designated as wilderness
areas.

The Interior policy drew sharp

criticism from several western state Republicans, who fear new
restrictions on oil-and-gas development and other activities.

But
Simpson, who heads the Interior and Environment Subcommittee, isn’t
joining the attacks – yet. “I’m reserving judgment until I find out what
they are trying to do,” he told reporters in the Capitol.

Simpson

plans spending cuts

Elsewhere, Simpson said he’s preparing
to make the budget cuts needed to bring spending back to 2008 levels. He
said it’s not as simple as across-the-board reductions, noting there
are some programs he’s loath to cut that deeply, while others may have
to be cut even more sharply to compensate.

His subcommittee
handles both EPA and the Interior Department. Simpson wants to “be more
thoughtful” than across-the-board cuts at EPA, and similarly noted that
he’s fond of some work Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs is doing on
issues including Indian health.

U.S. officials sign energy cooperation agreement with China

U.S. and Chinese officials signed a “joint work plan” to advance the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center that was launched in 2009. The work plan outlines how the countries will cooperate on a number of key technologies including coal with carbon capture and electric vehicles.

Energy Secretary Chu also witnessed the signing of a handful of commercial cooperation agreements between Chinese and American companies. American companies that signed the commercial agreements include Duke Energy, General Electric and American Electric Power.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY: Interior’s drilling
overhaul plows ahead

Top Interior Department officials will
roll out plans for separating the offshore leasing and development
bureaucracy from environmental and safety enforcement.

It’s the
latest phase of the overhaul of the former Minerals Management Service –
now called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and
Enforcement (BOEMRE) – launched after the BP spill. The goal is to end
“conflicting missions” within Interior’s offshore oversight.

The
revenue collection arm has already been broken off into a separate
agency, but BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich said last week that
separating the other functions will

be tougher. Bromwich and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will
hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. Wednesday morning.

They’ll

brief reporters after Salazar’s keynote address at the National
Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment, which is focusing on
ocean health and runs Jan. 19-21.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: Oil
spill commission chiefs

The co-chairmen of the presidential
commission on the BP oil spill – Bob Graham and William Reilly – will
also speak at the National Conference on Science, Policy and the
Environment.

The remarks come after last week’s release of the
final report by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil
Spill and Offshore Drilling, which warned that another disaster could be
in the offing absent major changes by government and industry.

ON

TAP WEDNESDAY III: Chu, Sutley chat with mayors

Energy
Secretary Steven Chu and Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman
Nancy Sutley are both slated to give remarks at the U.S. Conference of
Mayors meeting.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY IV: Update in mine blast probe

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration will provide an update on the latest developments in the probe of last April’s fatal West Virginia coal mine disaster. The explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine killed 29 workers. It was the worst U.S. mining accident in decades.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY V: A look at international
climate talks

The Brookings Institution will host a forum
called “Beyond a Global Deal – A ‘United Nations Plus’ Approach to
Climate Governance.” It will feature experts from Brookings, the World
Resources Institute and the Woodrow Wilson Center.

ON TAP
WEDNESDAY VI: Planet management

The Woodrow Wilson Center
hosts a forum with a very ambitious title: “A Dialogue on Managing the
Planet.” Speakers will include Dennis Dimick, executive editor of
National Geographic.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

President Obama signed an executive order Tuesday calling for a government-wide review of the administration’s regulations and outlining new standards for future rules. The new framework requires additional analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency’s pending climate rules, but Obama said Tuesday that the benefits of his administration’s major environmental regulations outweigh the costs.

An environmental watchdog group immediately raised red flags about the new proposal, arguing that it could result in the administration assuaging industry’s concerns about the rules. A big manufacturing trade group, on the other hand, called on Obama to overturn the administration’s pending climate rules under the new framework.

Amid the rapid reaction to the framework, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed that it will not result in a rollback of environmental rules, just further “review.” An EPA official echoed those comments Tuesday night.

In other news, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who announced Tuesday that he won’t seek reelection in 2012, said energy will be one of his top priorities during the rest of his time in the Senate; Al Gore blamed flooding in Australia on climate change; and an Alaska senator called for hearings on the leak in the Trans Alaska Pipeline System.

This post was updated at 8:50 p.m.