E2-Wire

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Alaska officials ramp up ANWR push

by Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 09/20/11 11:31 PM ET

NEWS BITES

Upton, Stearns blast Solyndra executives for pleading the Fifth: House Republicans quickly blasted top executives at failed solar firm Solyndra on Tuesday night for saying they will plead the Fifth during a hearing later in the week.

“Who exactly are Solyndra’s executives trying to protect and what are they trying to hide?” asked House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) in a joint statement.

Upton and Stearns said the executives had promised them they would not plead the Fifth.

“We would encourage Mr. Harrison and Mr. Stover to reconsider this effort to dodge questions under oath and hide the truth from those American taxpayers who are now on the hook for their $500 million bust,” the lawmakers said.

Attorneys for Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison and CFO W.G. Stover said Tuesday they will exercise their Fifth Amendment rights at the hearing, refusing to answer questions in light of an ongoing Justice Department probe into the company.

You can read more about that here.

Auto dealers to push mileage rule timeout: The National Automobile Dealers Association will make the rounds on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, pitching lawmakers on a proposal to delay the Obama administration’s most recent vehicle fuel-economy standards.

NADA will meet with House and Senate members to gather support for an amendment to Environmental Protection Agency spending legislation that would block the EPA from using fiscal year 2012 funds to implement fuel-economy standards for model year 2017-2025 vehicles. Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio) is sponsoring the amendment.

The administration announced the new standards, which require cars and light-duty trucks to meet a fuel-economy standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, in July.

“54.5 is too much, too fast,” NADA spokesman Bailey Woods told The Hill.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is slated to address NADA at its conference Wednesday morning in Washington.

Markey: Haul BP, other companies before committee: Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called on Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee to haul executives from BP and the other companies involved in last year’s oil spill before the panel Friday.

The committee is conducting a hearing Friday on a federal report that laid out mistakes by BP — and to a lesser degree its contractors — that led to the disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 11 men and spewed 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Executives with the companies — including BP, Halliburton and Transocean — are not slated to testify at the hearing.

“It appears that Republicans have put these oil company executives into a witness protection program, to ensure they don’t have to answer tough questions about drilling safety or the BP spill,” Markey, the top Democrat on the panel, said in a letter to committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.).

“If we conduct these hearings on offshore drilling safety and the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history, and the committee does not invite these companies to testify, then this committee is not doing its job.”

House Dems call on Boehner not to cut vehicle loan program: Reps. Anna Eshoo (Calif.) and Gary Peters (Mich.), along with 77 other Democrats, are calling on Boehner not to cut an advanced vehicles loan program in order to pay for disaster relief.

“While we fully support providing emergency funding to those who have been impacted by Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters, we urge you not to pay for disaster relief by cutting programs that are designed to create new jobs and help ensure a strong domestic manufacturing sector,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter Tuesday, referring to the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

The program, which was established under a 2007 energy law, provides loans to update manufacturing facilities to produce efficient technology for vehicles.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY

Senate panel to mark up Gulf spill penalties bill: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will mark up legislation that would steer 80 percent of an expected billions of dollars in Clean Water Act penalties from the BP oil spill into Gulf Coast recovery and restoration.

House panel to probe China’s rare-earth dominance: A House Foreign Affairs Committee subpanel meets Wednesday for a hearing about China’s dominance in the production of rare-earth minerals — which are used in several clean-energy technologies — and the implications for the United States.

House Energy Committee continues assault on EPA rules: The House Energy and Commerce Committee will continue marking up a pair of GOP-led bills to delay and soften EPA air-toxics rules for industrial boilers and cement plants.

Forum to explore clean energy finance: The Institute for Policy Studies, Friends of the Earth and other groups will host a forum with a range of experts to discuss “provide cost-effective, clean energy in the global South.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT …

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

– Obama’s drilling chief snubs Rep. Landry after ‘Gestapo’ remark
– Sanders, liberal Dems express ‘deep disappointment’ over Obama’s smog retreat
– Upton raises concerns DOE will rush approval of remaining loan guarantees
– Obama: US will implement international standards for energy transparency
– Clinton blasts Republicans on climate change denial
– GOP raises stakes in Clean Air Act fight
– Solar panel installations increase, but industry still faces challenges
– Issa to launch probe of Obama actions on Solyndra, LightSquared