E2-Wire

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Showtime for energy and EPA budget plans

by Ben Geman and Andrew Restuccia - 03/02/11 12:23 AM ET

State of Play: President Obama’s top energy and environmental officials will appear Wednesday at Senate hearings to defend the White House budget plan – events certain to highlight divisions between Obama and Republicans on climate change, green energy spending and more.

The fiscal year 2012 request will probably bear only a marginal resemblence to spending plans that Congress ultimately adopts, but its consideration is a forum for debate on competing political and policy goals.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will testify in the morning before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, an appearance that arrives two days after Interior approved the first deepwater drilling permit since last year’s BP oil spill. But Republicans and pro-drilling Democrats say the department needs to be more aggressive in getting permits out the door.

{mosads}Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the committee’s top Republican, previewed her line of questioning Tuesday.

“The deepwater moratoria was lifted back in October and yet it’s taken nearly five months to approve the first well permit. DOI now has about two weeks to issue four more permits if it’s to comply with the court’s order,” Murkowski said in a statement. “DOI clearly needs to step up its game in order to approve projects in a timely and responsible manner.” A Louisiana federal judge on Feb. 17 gave Interior 30 days to decide whether to issue five deepwater drilling permits.

While Salazar testifies, Energy Secretary Steven Chu will be three floors above in the Dirksen Senate office building. He’ll be defending the request for a multi-billion dollar increase before the Senate Budget Committee. The Energy Department budget plan focuses heavily on expanding renewable energy and efficiency R&D and science programs.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson will appear in the afternoon before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The panel’s top Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), is among the leaders of GOP attempts to strip EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.

NEWS BITES:

Stabenow: Blocking EPA on spending bill is ‘extreme’

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) is not enamored with proposals to block funding for EPA’s climate rules on a federal spending bill. “It’s very extreme, I would say, the tactic of blocking funding for implementation really is not a very thoughtful approach,” she told E2 Tuesday.

The seven-month spending plan the House approved last month – before passing a stopgap two-week measure Tuesday – would prohibit fiscal year 2011 funding for EPA’s greenhouse gas rules.

But despite her criticism of spending riders, Stabenow said she’s concerned about the effects of EPA’s rules on jobs and costs. “I am watching them very closely right now,” Stabenow said.

She said she’s undecided on whether to support Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) bill that would delay regulation of power plants and other stationary sources for two years. “I’m looking at that,” Stabenow said.

Republicans make EPA official wait

EPA air chief Gina
McCarthy waited for hours Tuesday in a room next to the House Energy and
Commerce Committee’s chamber to give testimony on the agency’s climate
regulations.

Traditionally, administration officials testify
first at hearings, but, in a deviation from standard procedure, Republicans scheduled
McCarthy on the second panel at a hearing Tuesday.

As often
happens, the first panel of the hearing – which was packed with industry
officials – went long and was interrupted by two House votes.

McCarthy
didn’t begin her testimony until around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Earlier
in the day, committee ranking Democrat Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
criticized Republicans for scheduling McCarthy last. Rep. Ed Whitfield
(R-Ky.), the chairman of the energy subcommittee, promised to follow
protocol in future hearings.

Asked about the decision to put
McCarthy in the second panel, Whitfield said the first panel was more
relevant to the hearing, which focused on EPA climate regulations and
jobs.

“She was not really focusing on jobs per se, but just the
Clean Air Act in general and greenhouse gases in general,” Whitfield
said.

Asked what McCarthy did while waiting to testify, Whitfield
said, “I was told that she was sitting over on our side watching
everything on television and she was riveted and couldn’t break herself
away.”

Casey prods EPA, Pennsylvania officials on gas drilling water concerns

Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) is the latest Democrat to express alarm over the big weekend New York Times story on water pollution linked to natural gas drilling in his state and elsewhere. He wrote to EPA’s Lisa Jackson stating that he’s “deeply concerned that not enough is being done to protect the drinking water of my constituents.”

“For the utmost protection of water sources, and the drinking water of my constituents, I urge you to examine carefully and strongly assert the authority that EPA has to more closely and frequently monitor what is in the wastewater delivered to the treatment plants, pollutants discharged into water sources, and contaminants in drinking water,” he writes.

Casey also sent a letter to Michael Krancer, the head of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

“[T]he article states that no testing has occurred at more than 65 drinking water intake sites since 2008 and that most haven’t been tested since 2005. Why have inspections not taken place and what is the plan to inspect all drinking water intake facilities – especially those that are downstream from drilling sites. These waters should be tested as soon as possible, continuing on a regular basis with full disclosure to the public,” the letter states.

Barton: No place for ‘environmental pseudo-science’ in
EPA-blocking debate

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said there is
no place for “environmental pseudo-science” in the upcoming debate on
whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate greenhouse
gas emissions.

Asked what role science would play in upcoming
House Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on EPA climate regulations,
Barton, a climate skeptic, told E2, “You’ve got to decide what you mean by science.”

‘If
it’s real science, if it’s peer-reviewed and based on the traditional
scientific method, that’s one thing,” he continued. “If it’s
environmental pseudo-science, we’ve heard enough of that for four years
under the Democrats control of the House.”

As oil prices rise, ethanol industry launches ad campaign

The ethanol industry trade group Growth Energy is launching an online
ad campaign to tout the fuel in light of rising oil prices and unrest
in North Africa and the Middle East.

The campaign, “Say No to
OPEC, Say Yes to America,” points to the “dangers” of the country’s
reliance on foreign oil and positions ethanol as a key domestic energy
source.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY:

FERC’s Wellinghoff, Sen. Alexander to appear at innovation summit

Wednesday will be another big day at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

The conference on the Energy Department program to back R&D into breakthrough energy technologies will include remarks by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and many other officials and experts.

Sen. Merkley to address oil prices, security

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) will speak on a call hosted by the Center for American Progress. He will “speak about his plan to increase energy independence through the deployment of electric vehicles and increased fuel efficiency for heavy trucks to eliminate the country’s need to import oil from overseas (all imports except those from Canada and Mexico) by 2030,” an advisory states.

Merkley floated a version of the plan last year.

Forum to explore green power in developing countries

The United States Energy Association will hold a morning briefing on the status of low-carbon electricity programs in developing nations such as Indonesia and India.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Here’s a selection of E2’s posts from Tuesday:

– FBR Capital Markets says the press will tire of reporting on offshore drilling permits
– House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) not happy about Republicans’ decision to use Styrofoam cups
– Murkowski thinks Congress won’t fund ARPA-E at the levels Obama requested
– A House GOP bill would give companies blanket approval to go ahead with offshore drilling
– EPA said the Clean Air Act has delivered major public health and economic benefits
– George Soros waded into a fight over oil payment disclosures
– House Republicans agreed to hold a climate science hearing
– Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said rising oil price could threaten growth
– House Republicans rejected an attempt by Democrats to eliminate oil tax breaks
– Republicans expect support from Democrats for a bill to block EPA climate rules