OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Cuccinelli, EPA to square off over coal plant rules

As far as the MACT rules go, the hearing is the latest of several GOP attacks on the rule. House Republicans, with 19 Democrats in tow, passed legislation last month to thwart the rule.

EPA and public health advocates call the regulation a vital and long-overdue step to clean up older coal-fired plants that lack pollution controls. The Clean Air Act called for the standards, which have been tied up in court, to be issued in 2002.

{mosads}EPA says the rules to control mercury, acid gases, chromium and other toxics will provide vital public health protections, estimating the regulations will eventually prevent up to 17,000 premature deaths and 11,000 heart attacks a year.

But many Republicans allege the rules — taken in concert with other recent and looming regulations — will create costly new burdens and force enough plant closures to threaten power grid reliability.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), in a statement ahead of the hearing, bashed the upcoming rule.

“States that rely on traditional carbon-fueled energy production will be subjected to higher energy bills. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be jeopardized in the Midwest and Appalachia at a time when scarce resources should be used for job creation, not regulatory compliance,” he said.

But the Obama administration is pushing back against the GOP refrain that EPA and other agency regulations are what are holding back the economy.

“[T]wo commonly repeated misconceptions are that uncertainty created by
proposed regulations is holding back business investment and hiring and
that the overall burden of existing regulations is so high that firms
have reduced their hiring,” states a Treasury Department blog post last week by Jan Eberly, the assistant secretary for economic policy.

NEWS BITES

Vitter won’t lift hold on Interior nominee: Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said Monday that he will not release his hold on a key Interior Department nominee until the Obama administration extends the life of shallow-water oil-and-gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department said Monday it has extended nearly 1,400 deepwater Gulf oil-and-gas leases that were affected by the administration’s post-oil-spill drilling moratorium.

But Interior did not extend shallow-water leases because the moratorium, which ended in October of 2010, only applied to deepwater leases.

“Pretending that shallow water leases either weren’t affected or don’t matter is just sad,” Vitter said in a statement. “If these leases are allowed to expire, they will revert to the federal government, killing jobs and cutting off potential revenue from exploration and production.”

Vitter in August placed a hold on the nomination of Rebecca Wodder to be Interior’s assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks.

Read more about the administration extending the deepwater leases here.

Industry poll shows strong support for solar: The solar industry will release a report Tuesday showing that Americans are supportive of solar energy.

The poll, commissioned by the Solar Energy Industries Association, found that 82 percent of those questioned would be extremely likely or somewhat likely to support investments in solar energy. The same percentage of those polled say it is extremely or somewhat important “for the federal government to support U.S. solar manufacturing right now.”

In addition, 48 percent of those polled say their biggest concern about solar is its cost.

The poll comes as Republicans are raising concerns about federal investments in green energy, citing the recent collapse of Solyndra, a California solar manufacturing company that received a $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee.

Senate Republicans blast DOE loan program, want ‘Solyndra rule’: Nearly all of the Solyndra action has taken place in the House, but Senate Republicans are increasingly calling on Democrats to examine the Obama administration’s loan program for renewable energy projects.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) called on her Senate colleagues Monday to examine Energy Department (DOE) loan guarantees, citing the White House’s decision to launch an independent review of DOE’s loan portfolio.

“An independent review will serve as a complement to, but not a replacement for, continuing congressional oversight of this matter,” said Murkowski, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Every step that can be taken — whether public hearings in the committees of jurisdiction or an independent review — is appropriate at this time.”

But committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM.) has no plans to conduct a Solyndra-related hearing, though he told reporters in in early October that he might hold a hearing on federal financing of renewable energy more generally.

Bill Wicker, Bingaman’s spokesman, told The Hill Monday that there are no plans for a hearing “in the near term.”

“We may try and do something on the subject later this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) blasted the DOE loan program Monday, pointing to the bankruptcy of energy storage company Beacon Power Corp. (which received a $43 million Energy Department loan guarantee last year).

The news highlights the Obama administration’s “reckless abuse of taxpayers’ dollars in the pursuit of green jobs,” Sessions said.

“I have proposed something called the Solyndra rule, a principle upon which hopefully both parties can agree,” Sessions said. “The idea is simple: before any proposals are offered to raise taxes, we first focus all of our attention on removing the waste and excess from the federal budget. The American people deserve better from their government.”

Sensenbrenner to float bill requiring audit of DOE loan program: Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said Monday he will introduce legislation to require an independent audit of the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program, arguing that a White House review of the program is not enough.

{mossecondads}“Learning about what went wrong with loans to Solyndra is important, but we also need to investigate other loans and ensure that future loans make fiscal sense,” Sensenbrenner said in a statement.

Administration unveils ‘sustainability plans’: The
Obama administration unveiled a series of “sustainability plans” Monday
aimed at making federal agencies more efficient. The plans are required
under an executive order signed by President Obama in 2009.

“The
Federal government is seeing the same kinds of positive results that
leading American companies have seen from their own sustainability
efforts,” Nancy Sutley, chairwoman of the White House Council on
Environmental Quality, said in a statement on the plans. “Making
buildings more efficient, conserving vital resources, and reducing waste
all improve the Federal Government’s energy and environmental
performance and save taxpayer dollars.”

You can read the plans here.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

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

— Interior extends 1,400 leases affected by post-spill drilling moratorium
— Carney distances Obama from looming Keystone pipeline decision
— Cain’s energy plan: ‘Attitude adjustment’ for EPA
— GOP-er says White House wants Energy Dept. to ‘take the fall’ on green loans
— Second Energy Department-backed company goes bankrupt

Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman, ben.geman@digital-staging.thehill.com, and Andrew Restuccia, arestuccia@digital-staging.thehill.com.


Follow us on Twitter: @E2Wire, @AndrewRestuccia, @Ben_Geman