The week ahead: House (and maybe Senate?) climate votes loom, Obama takes energy focus to Philly

A spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday that House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) bill is slated for a vote.

The exact timing remains uncertain, but it could be as soon as Wednesday. The House Rules Committee — which sets the rules for floor debate — has already scheduled a Tuesday afternoon hearing and is calling for lawmakers to submit proposed amendments by late Tuesday morning.

The bill is expected to pass but lacks 60 votes in the Senate.

Senate GOP leaders are seeking a vote on grafting the same plan to small business legislation that’s currently on the floor. A vote could come this week.

But the vote appeared imminent several times last week and earlier in March, and didn’t come to pass. Several Democratic alternatives that would limit or delay the rules without stripping EPA’s authority are also in the offing.

Few think the GOP plan can pass the Senate. But a clear majority vote for the measure would nonetheless be a political rebuke of White House climate policies and hand opponents of EPA rules more leverage in future climate battles.

Talks between the House, Senate and the White House over a fiscal year 2011 spending package are also coming to a head this week – the current stopgap funding bill expires April 8, so a partial government shutdown looms without a deal or another stopgap bill.

The White House and Democrats are pushing back against GOP efforts to blocking funding for several EPA rules in the measure to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year. But the GOP plans would also make major cuts in EPA’s budget and Energy Department R&D programs.

A number of energy-related hearings are on tap this week against the backdrop of these climate and budget battles. Here are a few notable ones:

On Monday, a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee – the Energy and Power Subcommittee – will hear from several experts on “China’s energy portfolio and the implications for jobs and energy prices in the United States.”

On Tuesday a panel of the House Natural Resources Committee will look at the White House’s fiscal year 2012 budget plans and proposals for the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service – specifically how they would affect “Private Sector Job Creation, Domestic Energy and Minerals Production and Deficit Reduction.”

On Wednesday the same panel – the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee – will hold a hearing on a trio of bills that full committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) has introduced to expand offshore drilling.

Also Wednesday: A panel of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will explore offshore drilling safety and response technologies.

More Wednesday action: The Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on the U.S. government’s response to the nuclear reactor crisis in Japan.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Thursday to review Energy Department programs to boost biofuels and related infrastructure.

They’ll discuss Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) bill to boost ethanol by requiring increased manufacture of vehicles that can run on high ethanol blends; providing new federal grants for ethanol pumps, and several other measures to boost availability of biofuels.