The week ahead: All eyes on Obama for climate agenda

Advocates are hoping for more aggressive federal policies, including first-time Environmental Protection Agency carbon emissions standards for existing power plants.
 
Obama’s allies in the green movement are making the case for action ahead of the speech.
 
“The Supreme Court ruled that EPA had to regulate greenhouse gases if they found that they endanger public health and welfare. And EPA made that scientific finding, so now they have to do this. I think the real question is, will these be technology forcing? Will they really require us to come forward with new technologies to trap these gases to make sure that we don’t continue to emit them?” said Carol Browner, Obama’s former energy czar who is now with the liberal Center for American Progress.

Browner, in an interview with Bloomberg, also made the economic case. The economy is expected to be the focal point of Obama’s speech.
 
“The benefits of clean air, of protecting our environment, are always far greater than we anticipate and the cost far lower. And by setting these standards, there will be business opportunities that are created. There will be companies that can develop the new technologies,” Browner said in the interview that aired Sunday on Bloomberg Government’s Capitol Gains.
 
While energy policy clashes between Republicans and the White House await, there will be at least a moment of bipartisanship this week.

On Tuesday the House is slated to pass the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act of 2013.

“This bipartisan bill would facilitate the development of small hydropower and conduit projects and direct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to study the feasibility of a streamlined two-year permitting process,” according to the office of co-sponsor Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.).

There will also be several energy-related hearings on Capitol Hill this week.
 
The most closely watched will be a long-awaited Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing about “opportunities and challenges for natural gas.”

The session will include heavy focus on politically charged questions of whether the U.S. should allow a major expansion of natural-gas exports.
 
The oil-and-gas industry and several other business groups are pushing Energy Department regulators to approve applications to export gas to nations that don’t have free-trade deals with the U.S. (those applications are more carefully vetted).
 
But while many lawmakers support exports, the idea has its share of skeptics, too.
 
One of the most prominent is Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who doesn’t oppose exports outright but wants Congress to step in and help find a “sweet spot” on the level of shipments allowed.
 
Wyden isn’t a fan of a recent DOE-commissioned study that concluded that exports would be an economic win for the U.S. and that price increases would be modest. He argues that the study, which will help guide DOE’s decisions, downplayed the harmful effect of exports on U.S. consumers and energy-consuming manufacturing industries.
 
Witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing will include Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, who has joined with a few other chemical and manufacturing giants to call for limits on exports.
 
Other witnesses will be more export-friendly, including American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard and a top official with the National Association of Manufacturers. The witness list is available here.
 
Exports are just one of the big policy questions surrounding natural gas. Federal officials are also preparing new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, the drilling method that’s enabling a production boom but bringing pollution fears alongside it.
 
With so much happening in the natural-gas world, Wyden and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the committee’s top Republican, will also discuss gas Wednesday at a forum hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
 
Other guests at the CSIS event include officials with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and the Environmental Defense Fund.

In the House, several committees will hold energy-related hearings this week.  

On Wednesday, a panel of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hear from the Obama administration’s top analyst for a hearing on “technology, market and policy drivers.”

Energy Information Administration chief Adam Sieminski will testify.

On Thursday a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee panel will examine “the effects of rising energy costs on American families and employers.”

On Friday a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel will look warily at the prospect of new federal regulations at a hearing about “the role of the states in protecting the environment under current law.”