E2-Wire

OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Next stage of Solyndra probe takes shape

by Andrew Restuccia and Ben Geman - 10/25/11 10:01 PM ET

Richardson authored a February memo arguing that the Energy Department’s restructuring agreement did not violate the 2005 energy law that established the loan guarantee program.

Stearns, in a C-SPAN interview Tuesday morning, dismissed the memo.

{mosads}“Counsel cannot decide on her own … what is in the best interest of the United States,” he said. “You have to follow the law, and in this case she did not.”

Stearns said he hopes to hear testimony from Energy Secretary Steven Chu sometime before Thanksgiving, but the exact timing remains unclear.

The Energy Department has said Chu is prepared to testify on Nov. 1 or Nov. 2, but committee Republicans turned down the offer so that lower-level DOE officials can testify first.

“When you’re doing an investigation and you have this amount of detail, I think you should move systematically and carefully on this and progress in a way that you understand why all the people made their decisions and then bring the top guy in last,” Stearns said, referring to Chu.

Once Chu testifies, Stearns said, Republicans will turn their attention to big-picture questions about Energy Department loan programs. They will examine loan guarantees to SunPower, a solar company, and to Fisker and Tesla, two vehicle manufacturers.

But that’s not all: Stearns also said he hopes to conduct an investigation into China’s trade practices in light of a petition by a handful of solar manufacturers alleging that the country is illegally subsidizing its solar industry.

More on that here.

NEWS BITES:

Study finds coal worse for climate than ‘fracked’ gas …

A new study by University of Maryland researchers finds that natural gas developed through hydraulic fracturing — dubbed “fracking” — is a much more climate-friendly electricity source than coal.

The report counters an explosive, contrarian Cornell University study that concluded shale gas is worse than coal due to fugitive emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — during the extraction process.

“In our calculations, a robust conclusion seems to be that even with high existing uncertainties in fugitive emissions from the hydraulic fracturing process, the greenhouse footprint of shale gas and other unconventional gas resources is about 11% higher than that of conventional gas for electricity generation, and still 56% that of coal,” states the University of Maryland study published in Environmental Research Letters.

… but Dems press EPA on diesel use in ‘fracking’

Top House Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats say the amount of diesel fuel injected underground by natural-gas drillers is higher than they previously believed.

The Democrats, in a new letter to EPA, say updated data submitted by oil-and-gas service companies raises the amount of diesel fuel, or fracking fluids containing diesel, injected between 2005 and 2009.

The Democrats raised the total figure by 500,000 gallons to 32.7 million gallons in 20 states.

“This new information indicates that the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing may be even higher than expected based on our original estimates. The companies’ reporting errors also reinforce the need for mandatory and uniform national disclosure of the contents and use of hydraulic fracturing fluids,” states the letter to EPA Tuesday from Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).

EPA is studying the effects of fracking on water supplies.

“We look forward to the completion of your hydraulic fracturing study and urge you to consider appropriate regulations, as well as permitting guidance, for hydraulic fracturing fluids that contain diesel fuels,” the letter states.

House GOP presses probe DOE, EPA on spending

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are pressing four federal agencies — including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department — for more information about their efforts to eliminate wasteful spending.

In separate letters to the agencies Tuesday, the lawmakers asked for detailed information on “obligated and unobligated” funds.

“In these four agencies alone, there are billions of dollars in unobligated balances, meaning taxpayer dollars are recorded on the government balance sheet waiting to be spent as an agency chooses. Understanding the role of outstanding obligations appropriated in prior years will help in identifying opportunities to cut spending,” the committee said in a statement.

Read the letters here.

Greens up Keystone pressure with ad buy

Environmentalists battling the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline are stepping up their opposition with a major ad buy this week.

The umbrella group Tar Sands Action ran a Washington Post print ad Tuesday. The campaign also includes a New York Times print ad and online placements with the Post, CNN, Fox, CNN, Politico and Foreign Policy, the group said.

The ad has a picture of President Obama, and above the photo reads: “An Environmental Crime In Progress And Only Barack Obama Can Stop It. Will He?”

It then spells out pipeline opponents’ various claims that the State Department’s review process is rigged in favor of TransCanada Corp., which is seeking approval to build the pipeline bringing oil sands from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.

The ad can be viewed here.

DOE investing $60 million in solar research

The Energy Department said Tuesday it is investing $60 million in solar energy research.

Here are the details, via an Energy Department statement:

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative, Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced a $60 million investment over 3 years for applied scientific research to advance cutting-edge Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies. CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight to produce heat, which can then be used to produce electricity. Funded through DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this research supports DOE’s SunShot Initiative, a collaborative national effort to reduce the cost of solar energy 75 percent to make it cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY:

Oceans policy in focus

The House Natural Resources Committee will turn a skeptical eye toward the Obama administration’s oceans policy at a hearing Wednesday.   

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.

Alt energy and the Pentagon

Wednesday brings the final day of the Alternative Energy for Defense conference hosted by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement.

The event, in Vienna, Va., features the top military officials working on the Defense Department’s expansive alternative energy programs. More info here.

As the glaciers go …

The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars will hold an event titled “The Environmental and Social Consequences of Glacial Decline: Why Flatlanders Need to Care About High-Altitude Changes.” More info here.

DOE official to address carbon storage

The big Air Quality VIII conference continues in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, with federal and industry experts looking deeply into carbon capture and other matters.

Speakers Wednesday include the Energy Department’s Charles McConnell, who is at the helm of efforts to bring carbon storage closer to commercialization. More info here.

Vilsack talks food and environment

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will headline a National Journal policy forum called “Healthy Food-Healthy Planet.” More info here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

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

— Salazar leads US charge on oil ‘transparency’
— First Solar CEO steps down
— Comings, goings on the House Natural Resources Committee
— White House begins review of EPA air toxics rule
— Rep. Stearns looks to probe China’s solar trade practices
— Rep. Capito: EPA ‘hellbent’ on destroying jobs
— Green group targets Sen. Scott Brown in new advertisement
— Enviros warn of trade war after House vote on emissions trading
— House Dems, swimming upstream, push carbon tax
— GOP hoping for Chu testimony on Solyndra by Thanksgiving
— Keystone pipeline tests Clinton