OVERNIGHT ENERGY: EPA faces one-two punch Tuesday

Tuesday’s big story: Environmental Protection Agency regulations will likely come under attack on and off Capitol Hill Tuesday.

GOP White House candidates will hold a debate on the economy in New Hampshire Tuesday night, and E2 predicts that the EPA will be cast in an unfavorable light.

{mosads}Republican presidential hopefuls have for weeks bashed EPA regulations that they allege are too burdensome. Even former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who has positioned himself as a centrist in the race, says EPA has unleashed a “regulatory reign of terror” across the land.

Back in Washington, the House will continue work on a GOP-led bill to delay and soften EPA air-toxics rules for industrial boilers.

It’s one of several rules in crosshairs of Republicans who call EPA rules “job killers.” A final vote on the boiler bill is expected Tuesday evening, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said.

Environmentalists and many Democrats say Republicans critics are peddling inaccurate industry claims about EPA rules’ impacts and thwarting vital public health protections.

NEWS BITES

Huntsman: U.S., China should ‘start’ collaborating on clean energy: GOP White House hopeful Jon Huntsman, who resigned as ambassador to China earlier this year, said in a major foreign policy speech Monday that the U.S. and China need to begin working together on green energy.

“The United States and China can and should today start collaborating on clean-energy technologies, combating global pandemics, and countering piracy on the high seas,” Huntsman.

Formal U.S.-China clean-energy cooperation agreements already date back years, however.

For instance, in 2009 President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, one of several joint agreements on advanced vehicles, efficiency and other areas.

{mosads}Huntsman himself lauded the advancement of the work at an event in January of 2011.

The Bush administration also worked with China on areas including advanced vehicles and biofuels.

China pushes ahead with nuclear power: More China: While some nations are rethinking nuclear power in the wake of the Japanese reactor crisis, China is pushing ahead with plans for new reactors.

The New York Times reports from Beijing that China is “poised to build more nuclear reactors in the coming years than the rest of the world combined.”

“But questions abound whether China will be a savior for the international nuclear power industry, or a ferocious competitor that could create even greater challenges for nuclear power companies in the West,” the Times reports.

ON TAP TUESDAY

Salazar to tout offshore wind: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will speak at the American Wind Energy Association’s offshore wind conference in Baltimore and later brief reporters.

Salazar has approved the planned Cape Wind project off the Massachusetts coast and is trying to help spur development of other Atlantic projects.

Forum to explore low-carbon power: The World Resources Institute and the German embassy are teaming up for a forum titled “Transmission Successes: Preparing the grid for low carbon power.” Panelists include Federal Energy Regulatory Commission official Kevin Kelly of the regulators’ Office of Energy Policy and Innovation.

{mossecondads}Green group claims path forward on carbon: Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) will headline an Environment America event that explores the future of climate policy at a time when climate legislation is dead in Congress.

The group will unveil a report that lays out “a series of steps that local and state governments, with an assist from federal agencies, can adopt that would substantially cut carbon pollution,” an advisory states.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these E2 items from Monday and over the weekend …

— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may not make the final call on the Keystone pipeline
— Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is deepening his probe of solar loan guarantees
— Emails reveal a senior Treasury Department official’s concerns about the Solyndra loan guarantee

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