OVERNIGHT ENERGY: House readies new EPA attacks as McCarthy wins Senate nod

“The first may be, in my opinion, addressing the chemical explosion at West, [Texas] and also moving forward on all sorts of rules dealing with water, drinking water, clean water, also dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, methane, all that,” Boxer said.
 
“I think it will be a huge difference,” she added. “They really didn’t have anyone in place for a very long time except an acting person, and they just don’t have the gravitas if they are not confirmed. It is going to make an enormous difference.”

{mosads}House Republicans, meanwhile, are about to launch new efforts to strip the EPA’s power to move ahead with regulating carbon emissions from power plants and other sources.

A panel of the House Appropriations Committee next Tuesday will mark up fiscal 2014 EPA spending legislation.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who heads the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, has pledged that the bill will be part of the “battleground” over the White House climate change agenda.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire Thursday …

— Top GOP senator: Keystone won’t kill efficiency bill
— Senate votes 59-40 to confirm McCarthy as EPA administrator

— Rep. DeFazio tapped as top Dem on Natural Resources panel
— Senate votes to end debate on McCarthy’s nomination to lead EPA
— Report: Ex-Im Bank rejects financing for Vietnam coal plant
— White House steps up biofuel support amid escalating attacks
— GOP senator: ‘Tolerance’ needed for different climate change views

— Sens. Boxer, Inhofe jostle in climate change ‘theater’

— TransCanada exec: Keystone pipeline start date may slide again

— Report: JPMorgan, federal grid regulator near record settlement

— Barrasso touts Keystone, EPA amendments to efficiency bill
— White House seeks carbon curbs through energy efficiency gains

NEWS BITES:

Enviro group taps new energy and climate leader

The Environmental Defense Fund has named a new associate vice president for its climate and energy program.

Cheryl Roberto will move into that role, the environmental group announced Thursday. She most recently served as a commissioner on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Heatwave pushes natural-gas prices higher

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Natural-gas prices jumped 5% on Thursday, after a government report showed that the heat wave in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest was cutting into supply growth.

Natural-gas futures rose 18.3 cents to close at $3.812 per million British thermal units, a one-month high, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is the biggest percentage gain since September 2012.

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Oil link to stingray deaths probed

The Associated Press reports:

Mexican authorities investigating the deaths of at least 250 rays found on a beach say they are studying whether work being done by the country’s national oil company in the Gulf of Mexico might have been involved.

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Oil-and-gas boom strains infrastructure

The Washington Post reports that “Companies have been producing so much oil and gas that it’s now putting a strain on America’s energy infrastructure.”

“Case in point: The Energy Information Administration recently put out a report showing that U.S. transport of crude oil by rail, truck, and barge has soared by 57 percent between 2011 and 2012, surpassing 1 million barrels per day,” the paper reports.

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