The week ahead: Interior’s drilling chief to discuss safety reforms

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Brian Salerno and others will testify at the hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Also on Tuesday, a panel of the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on pipeline safety. The Senate is trying to pass pipeline safety legislation that has won bipartisan support. But Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is blocking lawmakers from quickly approving the legislation.

While the House is on recess this week, a bevy of hearings in the Senate will be important for energy policy.

• A subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on cleaning up brownfield communities.
• A Senate Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday on “shale gas production and water resources in the Eastern United States.”

Off Capitol Hill, the Energy Department’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will meet in Washington on Thursday. The commission has been charged with developing a strategy to deal with nuclear spent fuel and waste.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu will give the keynote speech at a meeting of the National Coal Council on Friday.

Also on Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a briefing on the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant, which was knocked offline when a magnitude-5.8 earthquake shook the East Coast in August.

Other events of note:

• The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies is holding a discussion Monday on the scientific lessons learned from last year’s oil spill.
• The New America Foundation is holding a discussion on the economic impacts of $4-per-gallon gas on Friday.