OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Global climate data arrives Tuesday

From an advisory about the National Press Club event: 

Topics will likely include: What will the Obama Administration do to address climate and energy? How will China’s new leadership advance its goal of “ecological progress”? What countries will emerge on the forefront of sustainability? And, how will financial constraints impact businesses seeking to shift to a more sustainable pathway?

Oil industry to unveil new campaign against biofuel mandate

The American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday will announce a new advertising campaign pushing for the dismantling of a biofuel-refining mandate.

{mosads}API, a powerful industry lobbying group, is urging lawmakers to repeal the renewable fuel standard.

The biofuels industry is vehemently defending the rule, which requires refiners to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuel into traditional transportation fuel by 2022.

API also will discuss other policy and regulatory issues facing refineries and pipelines during the media call.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire Monday and over the weekend …

– DHS: Energy sector target of 40 percent of cyberattacks
– Analysts: Global, US green energy investment slid in ‘12
– Sierra Club urges Obama to wield ‘full executive authority’ against climate change
– The week ahead: Flood relief bills head to House floor
– Sen. Murkowski’s Energy Committee chief of staff to depart
– Sen. Murkowski heads for Japan to talk gas exports, nuclear power
– ‘Fracking’ sparks talk of oil shale boom

NEWS BITES:

Feds push back decision on JPMorgan power market suspension

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is delaying a decision on whether to suspend JPMorgan from power market trading.

FERC banned the bank from trading power at market-based rates for six months in November, Reuters reported Monday. That temporary suspension is set to begin in April.

FERC has delayed a decision about whether to grant the financial giant a rehearing in the case.

The power grid regulator issued the penalty because JPMorgan failed to release information during a market manipulation investigation, according to Reuters.

FERC has not formally accused JPMorgan of manipulating electricity markets, Reuters noted.

Sen. Levin defends SEC payments rule

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is entering the legal fray over whether federal regulators can force oil and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments.

The Michigan Democrat is joining a friend-of-the-court brief that Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and ex-Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) are filing in defense of Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules.

The American Petroleum Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups are asking a federal court to scuttle the regulations, alleging they will impose costly burdens.

Click here for recent coverage.

Sen. Vitter ready for battle on ‘fracking’

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the new ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, is signaling that he’ll use the perch to criticize White House policy on “fracking.”

Vitter is among the many Republicans who fear Obama administration officials will place tough limits on the oil-and-gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing.

“That’s under attack from the left and I’m concerned that the EPA and other federal agencies may again, by administrative fiat, try to over-regulate or even shut down that activity,’’ he told The Shreveport Times.

The Times story also looks at the rest of Vitter’s agenda on the panel. Click here for the whole thing.

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