The week ahead: BP spill fund, airline carbon emissions in focus

Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and others have been critical of the compensation fund, known as the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Hastings said Obama offered assurances the fund would be administered “quickly, fairly and transparently,” but in a statement last week said there are serious questions about its effectiveness.
 
Hastings said he’ll question Feinberg — who previously administered the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund — about whether the program is adequately compensating spill victims.

Elsewhere, Environmental Protection Agency air quality rules will remain in the GOP’s crosshairs. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a Thursday hearing on EPA’s upcoming air toxics standards for power plants.
 
Agency critics allege the rules will threaten power grid reliability, while EPA — backed by recent Bipartisan Policy Center and Congressional Research Service reports — says the concerns are overblown.
 
The committee’s GOP majority seems inclined to believe that the “Maximum Achievable Control Technology” standards are a real threat to the power system. The hearing is titled “Lights Out II: Another Look at EPA’s Utility MACT Rule.”
 
A House Energy and Commerce Committee panel will hear from EPA’s top air regulator Tuesday at a hearing about a bill to prevent EPA from toughening rules for farm dust.
 
EPA already announced this month that it will not tighten controls on coarse particulate matter, or farm dust, but the lawmakers pushing the bill want to ensure EPA doesn’t have the option.
 
Other hearings to watch …
 
On Wednesday a House Natural Resources Committee will turn a skeptical eye toward the Obama administration’s oceans policy.
 
The title, courtesy of the GOP majority, is “The President’s New National Ocean Policy — A Plan for Further Restrictions on Ocean, Coastal and Inland Activities.”
 
White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairwoman Nancy Sutley and Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will defend the Obama administration.
 
On Thursday the House Science Committee will hold a hearing about the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, which is advising the Energy Department on nuclear waste policy.