OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Gas ‘fracking’ battle moves to Energy Department

The Energy Department panel — which meets with state regulators Thursday — hopes to identify “any immediate steps that can be taken to improve the safety and environmental performance of hydraulic fracturing,” according to its website.

“They will also develop advice for the agencies on shale extraction practices that ensure protection of public health and the environment,” it notes.

The stakes are high for the industry and green groups — and the White House. The Obama administration is in a politically sensitive spot with natural gas, voicing support for expanded development while pledging to heed environmental concerns.

Fracking involves high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand into rock formations, which opens cracks that enable trapped gas to flow. The Environmental Protection Agency is already studying the impact of fracking on groundwater and drinking water.

NEWS BITES:

White House: Commerce nominee ‘uniquely qualified’

White House press secretary Jay Carney responded Tuesday to criticism from House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) of President Obama’s nominee to head the Commerce Department, John Bryson.

Issa blasted Bryson for co-founding the Natural Resources Defense Council, arguing that the organization “opposes efforts to increase domestic oil production to serve as the nation’s key advocate for our economic interests.”

Here’s what Carney had to say at Tuesday’s daily press briefing:

“Well, I would simply say that the president sets policy and the president had made very clear that he wants to increase domestic oil production and has taken measures to do that in a safe and responsible way.”
 
“And the fact is, is that John Bryson has an enormous variety of experience in business, with nonprofits like NRDC and in government. He is uniquely qualified, the president believes, to be a member of his economic team to serve effectively as Commerce Secretary.”

NRDC, for its part, objected Tuesday to Issa’s characterization of its position on drilling.

Vitter: Obama’s Commerce pick ‘deeply disturbing’

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) called Obama’s decision to nominate John Bryson as Commerce secretary “deeply, deeply disturbing,” pointing to the former energy CEO’s co-founding of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Vitter, in a statement Tuesday night, argued that the NRDC filed “baseless lawsuits against drilling.”

Vitter is the latest Republican to raise concerns about Bryson’s work at NRDC, signaling a bumpy road ahead. Read more about that here and here.

Here’s more on Bryson’s energy and environmental experience.

Oil industry: Widen scope of EPA’s regulatory review plan

The American Petroleum Industry will call on the Obama administration Wednesday to widen the scope of its regulatory review plan.

API, the country’s most powerful oil industry trade group, will outline a series of Environmental Protection Agency regulations the organization believes should be modified as part of President Obama’s pledge to analyze regulations to ensure they are not “outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.”

EPA last week identified 31 regulations it plans to review. Sixteen of them are being cast as “early actions,” which means the agency will take immediate steps to alter the regulations. The other 15 regulatory reviews will take place over the longer term.

But that’s not enough, API will argue during a press conference with reporters Wednesday. EPA should also review upcoming National Ambient Air Quality Standards for ozone.

Ford CEO presses for ‘one national standard’ on fuel economy

Ford CEO Alan Mulally used Tuesday meetings with White House officials and Capitol Hill lawmakers to push for another unified national fuel economy standard once the program for model years 2012-2016 ends, The Detroit Free Press reports.

From their piece:

“Mulally said Ford believed ‘one national standard’ for the new targets would be ‘the most efficient way’ for automakers to deal with the new regulations. He said he preferred the negotiations to play out ‘like the last time’ — a reference to California’s voluntary decision last year to forego setting its own revised standard through 2016.”

“But California, which has indicated it now favors requirements as high as 60 miles per gallon by 2025, could still go its own way if it doesn’t like the new federal proposal. That scenario is something Ford and other automakers are very much hoping to avoid.“

Cape Wind chief to Congress: Speed up federal, judicial review for offshore renewables

The president of the company that has spent a decade seeking to build a wind farm off the Massachusetts coast will urge Congress Wednesday to speed up the federal process for reviewing offshore green-energy projects.

In testimony prepared for a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on “roadblocks” to projects, Cape Wind President Jim Gordon — who is developing the nation’s first offshore wind farm — offers several ideas.

Gordon’s ideas include setting new limits on the time period for federal environmental reviews, as well as consolidating and expediting judicial reviews of challenges to the various federal approvals needed. “Renewable energy projects that require federal approvals would be expedited significantly if all such reviews were consolidated in a single appellate proceeding in which the court is encouraged to expedite its decision,” Gordon states.

He also calls for extending the time period for availability of federal loan guarantees and tax credits, noting key incentives are slated to expire in 2011 and 2012. He calls the time frames too short.

Northeast gas drillers bash New York AG’s lawsuit

Companies developing the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation are attacking the New York attorney general’s lawsuit that demands new federal environmental studies before the Delaware River Basin Commission drilling rules can proceed.

“Frivolous lawsuits and more unnecessary regulatory red tape — which will add no environmental benefit — is not a common sense solution to address our nation’s energy challenges,” said Travis Windle, a spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition.

“However, increasing the responsible development of clean-burning American natural gas will continue to create thousands of good-paying jobs while helping to drive down our nation’s dangerous dependence on energy from unstable and unfriendly regions of the world,” he said.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY:

— The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hear opening
statements during the markup of two key energy bills. The first would
require additional economic analysis of Environmental Protection Agency
regulations and the second is aimed at speeding up air permitting for
offshore drilling projects in the Arctic. A vote on the measures, which cleared a subcommittee last week, will come Thursday.

— The House Natural Resources Committee will hold the second hearing aimed at “identifying roadblocks to wind and solar energy on public lands and waters.” This time, the committee will hear from the wind and solar industry.

— The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing exploring the “Department of Energy’s role in managing civilian radioactive waste.” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) will testify at the hearing, along with officials from the Energy Department and others.

— The House Science Committee will examine “harmful algal blooms.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

Here’s a quick roundup of Tuesday’s E2 stories:

— Green group pounces on Palin’s remark about loving smell of emissions
— Report: Workers find oil spill at stricken Japanese nuclear plant
— Senate Dems to Biden: Deficit deal with GOP must kill oil industry tax breaks
— Obama taps former energy CEO, green group co-founder for Commerce chief
— New York AG sues feds over gas ‘fracking’
— Obama: Bryson is a ‘fierce proponent of alternative energy’

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

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