OVERNIGHT ENERGY: GOP seeks Dem backing to kill climate rules

They include: Sens. Kent Conrad (N.D.), Tim Johnson (S.D.), Claire McCaskill (Mo.), Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Jim Webb (Va.). Other Senate Democrats to watch are Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.), who voted for Sen. Lisa
Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) failed
plan to block EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse emissions. Rockefeller voted for the Murkowski plan too, but he has more recently urged
caution on going “too far” in limiting the agency’s authority.

You can bet those senators will be getting calls from Inhofe’s staff, but it’s unclear if any of them could be persuaded to back Inhofe’s far more sweeping legislation.

Support from Democrats in the House is less important because Republicans have a majority in the chamber. But Republicans still managed to get two senior Democrats to co-sponsor the bill: Reps. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, and Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), the ranking member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, are both original co-sponsors. Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) also signed on to the legislation.

NEWS BITES:

Republicans float sweeping wish-list energy bill

Dozens
of House Republicans including a number of committee chairmen floated a
sweeping
energy bill that would open vast offshore areas to oil-and-gas
drilling and require permitting of scores of new nuclear reactors over
30 years.

The bill also opens up the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling, steers substantial federal revenues from
ANWR and offshore development into a trust fund for renewable power
projects, and blocks EPA climate-change rules.

Rep. Devin Nunes’s
(R-Calif.) bill has more than 50 co-sponsors, including House Budget
Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who
leads the Appropriations Committee panel that crafts EPA and Interior
Department spending plans.

“For too long, good paying energy jobs
have been outsourced by federal policies that prioritize rationing over
actual production. As a result, Americans have confronted unnecessarily
high energy prices. To create jobs and to protect our long-term
interests, we need to adopt an all of the above energy plan,” Nunes said
in a statement.

But the sweeping measure — which also aims to
spur development of coal-based transportation fuels — appears to be more
of a broad messaging effort than the final shape of GOP energy plans.

House
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and House
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) have both
said they hope to move a series of targeted energy bills rather than a
single, sweeping measure. They have laid out their agendas in broad
strokes but have yet
to offer legislative specifics.

Markey, Holt float
fees on non-producing oil-and-gas leases

Reps. Edward Markey
(D-Mass.) and Rush Holt (D-N.J.), seeking to counter a GOP push for
opening more areas to drilling, are floating legislation that pressures
oil companies to develop their existing leases.

The United States
Exploration on Idle Tracts — or “USE IT” — Act would impose fees on
oil-and-gas companies that “squat” on leases without developing them.
“Especially during a time of high prices, oil companies should produce
on the lands they already own. It’s like at the dinner table: clean your
plate first, then you get dessert,” said Markey, the top Democrat on
the House Natural Resources Committee.

Geithner: Rising oil
prices offset by ‘positive developments’

Treasury Secretary
Timothy Geithner appeared confident Thursday that the economy can
weather rising oil prices.

“The balance of evidence suggests that
growth is getting stronger both in the United States and around the
world. The price of oil has risen, adding to the pressures faced by
consumers here and around the world. At this point, however, the impact
of higher present and predicted oil prices are offset by other positive
developments reinforcing growth around the world,” he told the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee.

He also noted that the U.S. and
other nations have strategic reserves that could be mobilized if there’s
a supply disruption. (Our colleague Vicki Needham wrote a full story on
Geithner’s remarks here.)

More
Geithner: He backs the SEC oil-disclosure rule

The Treasury
chief heaped praise on a provision in last year’s Wall Street reform law
that will require
oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign
governments related to projects in their countries.

Sen. Dick
Lugar (R-Ind.), the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee
who co-authored the provision, asked Geithner about it at a committee
hearing Thursday. The measure requires the companies to make disclosures
to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“I’m a long supporter
of that specific initiative. And I think it’ has a very powerful
effect, again, on — not just improving transparency about the resources
these countries have available, but in improving the odds that they’re
used for the benefit of their people,” Geithner said.

Major oil
companies like Exxon and Shell are seeking exemptions from disclosure
rules the SEC is crafting, arguing they will be burdensome and place
them at a competitive disadvantage compared to some state-owned oil
companies when competing for contracts.

Rockefeller to Obama: Be ready to tap U.S. oil reserves

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) called on President Obama Thursday to be prepared to tap into the country’s oil reserves to help rein in fluctuating oil prices.

“Dramatic shifts in the U.S. and world oil market, ongoing turmoil in Libya and throughout the oil-dominant Middle East and North Africa, prompt me to write today to urge you to prepare for timely release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the face of further supply disruptions,” Rockefeller said in a letter to Obama Thursday.

Rockefeller is the latest lawmaker to call on Obama to be ready to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a 727-million barrel emergency bank of oil that can be used in the event of a major supply shortage.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) expressed similar sentiments in a floor speech Wednesday. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wenesday that the country’s reserves can be tapped if necessary.

But Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday that the United States does not yet need to tap the reserve.

EPA administrator takes no questions from the press

EPA
Administrator Lisa Jackson spent hours taking questions from lawmakers
on Capitol Hill this week, testifying about the agency’s budget during
hearings in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the
House Appropriations Committee.

But Jackson didn’t have any time
for reporters’ questions. On Wednesday, her spokeswoman said she had to
get to a meeting and couldn’t answer questions, and on Thursday Jackson
rushed by reporters without stopping.

ON TAP FRIDAY

EPA
‘listens’ to oil industry on climate rules

The agency will
hold the last of five “listening
sessions” on its plans to craft greenhouse gas emissions
standards for power plants and refineries. Petroleum industry officials
will provide input. Prior sessions have featured testimony from state
and tribal officials, environmental groups and others.

EPA’s
Jackson in Philly to talk gas ‘fracking’

EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson will be in Philadelphia to talk with agency staff about
hydraulic fracturing, which is a controversial natural-gas drilling
technique.

She will “meet staff who are working on these issues
in our regional office,” an EPA spokesman said.

EPA is studying

the effects of the technique — dubbed “fracking”  on
groundwater and drinking water. Some Democrats are calling for tougher

EPA oversight.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

E2 reported Thursday that Republicans got Democrats to sign on to legislation to block EPA climate rules; we told you that two Senate Democrats are calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission not to allow exemptions from pending oil-disclosure rules; and we reported about the latest effort by Republican to criticize the EPA.

Then we reported that a top House Republican may be willing to drop a series of riders in a spending bill that would block funding for EPA regulations; we told you about Republicans criticizing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on offshore drilling; and we said that Salazar is worried about a public “backlash” on “fracking.”

Finally, we brought you up to speed on new legislation to eliminate EPA’s climate authority, and we reported that Republicans won the support of one Senate Democrat for the bill.

Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman, ben.geman@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Andrew Restuccia, arestuccia@digital-staging.thehill.com.

Follow us on Twitter: @E2Wire, @AndrewRestuccia.