E2-Wire

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Fight over EPA regulations heats up

by Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 09/12/11 10:46 PM ET

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s GOP leadership pounced on the Luminant announcement Monday.

The Republicans said the power plant rule – called the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule – places “unfair and excessive” burdens on Texas and other states, and helped circulate the company’s press release.

House Republicans plan to bring separate legislation to the floor
that would delay the power plant rule.

But EPA on Monday defended the rule, noting it will prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths and thousands of asthma attacks. Gina McCarthy, EPA’s top air official, said Luminant’s decision was not necessary.

She said top EPA officials and tech staff have tried to work with the company “to assess their needs and continue to ensure they have options to meet these important new standards – including exploring additional flexibility for the company and encouraging more reliance on technologies the company has already installed.”

“As recently as yesterday EPA offered to share additional information that shows the potential for a no-shut down, no-layoff solution for statewide compliance. It is unfortunate that company leadership rushed to a decision that needlessly puts their workers’ jobs at risk,” McCarthy said in a statement.

NEWS BITES:

Obama’s jobs bill offset with repeal of oil industry tax breaks

The cost of President Obama’s jobs bill would be offset in part by repealing a slew of oil industry tax breaks, a proposal certain to face opposition from many Republicans and oil-state Democrats.

The decision to help offset the cost of the $447 billion jobs bill by repealing the oil industry tax breaks is not a surprise – the issue has been one of Obama’s go-to talking points for months. But the jobs bill sets up the latest forum for Republicans and Democrats to spar over whether oil companies that make massive profits should enjoy the subsidies.

Eliminating oil and gas industry tax breaks would raise about $40 billion, according to the administration.

And there’s another provision in the bill that could make for political fireworks on the debt supercommittee charged with cutting $1.5 trillion in deficit savings by Thanksgiving.

If the supercommittee cuts enough to offset the cost of the jobs package, the offsets outlined by the administration will not take effect, the legislation says. That could put pressure on Republicans on the supercommittee to make deeper cuts in order to avoid eliminating oil tax breaks.

Opponents of nixing the tax breaks, who have had the upper hand in this Congress, say repealing the incentives would slow investment in U.S. energy projects. The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry trade association, made its opposition to the proposal clear Monday.

“The administration is not just turning its back on oil and gas jobs,” API President Jack Gerard said in a statement Monday. “It is proposing more taxes on an industry doing one of the best jobs of creating them while also delivering more than $86 million a day in revenue to the government. “

The Hill’s Sam Youngman has more on how the administration plans to pay for its jobs bill.

Coastal senators form ‘Oceans Caucus’

A bipartisan group of coastal senators plan to launch an “Oceans Caucus” Tuesday.

The new caucus “will work to increase awareness and find common ground in responding to issues facing the oceans,” according a statement from the senators.

The group will hold its first meeting Tuesday, during which the 18 members of the caucus will select a chairman.

Members of the caucus include: Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

Al Gore: Focus climate campaigns on … climate

Al Gore is cautioning that climate change activists can’t rely only on a message tailored around energy security and jobs.

From his interview with The Washington Post’s Brad Plumer:

BP: What about the folks who say that environmentalists should drop the emphasis on climate change and instead just talk about the benefits of energy independence or the virtue of green jobs or whatnot?

AG: Well, I think the opportunities for tens of thousands of good new jobs and building infrastructure—that’s a powerful economic argument. Reducing our dependence on expensive dirty oil in a market dominated by the most unstable region of the world—that’s also important. But I think these arguments and others are far more effective when they are coupled with the main reason for doing this, which is to save the future of civilization. And I think when the right wing and carbon polluters intimidate people into avoiding the word climate or the subject of the climate crisis, that does not help in the long run. The core of the message still has to be about the reality we’re facing.

Gore’s Climate Reality Project is holding a big event Sept. 14 to draw the connection between global warming and extreme weather.

Giffords’ office organizing solar summit

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ (D-Ariz.) office is organizing a solar energy summit Thursday.

Giffords will not attend the event. Instead she is scheduled to be in rehabilitation therapy, according to her office. Giffords was shot at an event in Tucson, Ariz., in January.

The event will include remarks from Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Commissioner Marc Spitzer, Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch and NRG Solar President Thomas Doyle.

Waxman launches database documenting ‘most anti-environment House in history’

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, launched a database Monday documenting what he calls “the most anti-environment House in history.”

“The House has voted to block action to address climate change, to stop actions to prevent air and water pollution, to undermine protections for public lands and coastal areas, and to weaken the protection of the environment in dozens of other ways,” Waxman said in a statement.

See the database here.

ON TAP TUESDAY:

Interior’s drilling chief in focus

Michael Bromwich, the Interior Department’s top offshore drilling regulator, will discuss the overhaul of offshore regulation in the wake of the BP oil spill. He’ll be speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

House panel to review energy bills

A House Natural Resources Committee panel will hold a hearing on bills aimed at ensuring U.S. workers install and service offshore renewable energy infrastructure; allowing onshore oil-and-gas lease sales to be conducted online; and studying the potential for recovering minerals – other than oil-and-gas – from shallow and deep seabeds.

Wind industry chief to speak

American Wind Energy Association CEO Denise Bode is the guest speaker at a Natural Gas Roundtable luncheon.

Nuke fuel in focus

The Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment holds a briefing on International Atomic Energy Agency’s plans for a nuclear fuel bank. A top official with the Nuclear Threat Initiative will speak.

GridWeek continues

The big GridWeek 2011 electricity conference in Washington, D.C., continues. Tuesday gets rolling with remarks by the chairman of Pepco Holdings, Inc.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

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

– Chu: Obama jobs plan supports green energy
– NRC staff calls for speedy evaluation of earthquake, flood risks at nuke plants
– Interior fills in blanks on new offshore agencies
– Texas power company says EPA rules force it to close plants, cut jobs
– RNC chairman accuses Obama of ‘cronyism’ in Solyndra bankruptcy
– GOP argues bill would block ‘radical’ EPA student programs
– Reports: Explosion at French nuclear facility kills one person