OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Dems vow energy focus in jobs agenda

“It’s the most important new economic sector, and, with China and Europe investing in it heavily, we must work harder to make America the world’s clean energy leader,” Hoyer said.

The agenda includes the bipartisan Natural Gas Act, which offers billions of dollars in tax credits to spur conversion from oil to natural gas in the nation’s heavy trucking fleet. Another measure would provide billions of dollars in additional tax credits for manufacturing clean energy-related equipment.

Authorizing billions of dollars in new energy tax credits would face major hurdles.

Other portions of the plan include bills to spur U.S. production of rare earth minerals that are currently supplied by China and are vital to the manufacture of hybrid cars, wind turbines and other green energy technologies.

Overall, the “Make it in America” agenda is a series of bills designed to create jobs by boosting domestic manufacturing, investing in infrastructure projects and discouraging companies from outsourcing.

NEWS BITES

Amid debt fight, senators stop to tout recycling: Most senators were busy Tuesday voting on a debt compromise aimed at averting economic calamity, but Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and a dozen other lawmakers (11 Democrats and one Independent) still had time to introduce a resolution in support of recycling.

Carper and Snowe jointly head the Senate Recycling Caucus.

“Recycling is one of the easiest and most cost-effective methods to save energy, reduce landfill waste, and supply our manufacturing and construction industries with low-cost materials,” Snowe said in a statement on the resolution.

Bromwich battles Yergin’s firm over offshore drilling study: The Interior Department’s top offshore drilling regulator is bashing a prominent energy consulting firm’s study that alleged the pace of offshore exploration plan and drilling permit approvals is slowing job growth and the economy.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement Director Michael Bromwich wrote a strongly worded letter to Daniel Yergin, a prominent energy analyst who heads the consulting firm IHS CERA.

The Aug. 2 letter alleges the study made a series of “inaccurate and misleading claims” about BOEMRE’s offshore drilling plan review and permit process.

“We believe your study is fundamentally flawed: it fails to provide the methodology behind the statistical and historical information that forms the basis for the report,” states the letter, which goes on to say the study lacked context, presents “misleading” conclusions about current offshore drilling, and contains “factual errors” about planned lease sales and recent Gulf of Mexico oil-and-gas discoveries, among other criticisms.

The study released last month looked at the “gap” between the oil industry’s investment capacity and the federal regulatory capacity that the authors say is lagging behind the industry’s readiness to drill.

The study claims that closing this “gap” would create an additional 230,000 jobs next year, add $44 billion to GDP and 400,000 barrels per day of U.S. oil production next year. We wrote more about the study here.

Obama announces DOE general counsel nominee: President Obama nominated Gregory Woods Tuesday to be the Energy Department’s general counsel.

Woods currently serves as the deputy general counsel at the Transportation Department.

Here is his full bio, via the White House:

From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Woods was a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, New York.  He was an associate at the firm from 1998 to 2004.  Mr. Woods was a member of the firm’s corporate finance and Latin American practice groups and a member of the firm’s hiring and diversity committees.  From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Woods was a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he litigated fraud cases.  Mr. Woods currently serves on the board of the Union Settlement Association in New York, which provides social services in East Harlem, and the Board of Trustees of Williams College.  Mr. Woods holds a B.A. from Williams College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY:

• The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s Public Lands and Forests subcommittee will hold a hearing on pending public lands and other legislation.

• The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) is hosting a talk on “Evolving Nuclear Technology and Regulation: Lessons Learned from Fukushima.” Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioner George Apostolakis and others will speak at the event. You can read more about BPC’s new nuclear initiative here.

• The Energy Daily and the Nuclear Energy Institute are sponsoring a breakfast on energy legislation with Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy and Power panel.

• The Energy Department will announce the winner of its L. Prize, which awards the developers of advanced lighting technology. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and the panel’s ranking member, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), are slated to attend the event.

• The Natural Resources Defense Council will hold a conference call on climate change and flooding in the Midwest.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

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

— Salazar, Murkowski head to Alaska ahead of spending bill fight
— Reid: Clean energy on Democrats’ agenda after recess
— Boxer pledges fast action on BP spill penalties after recess
— NRC members signal some agreement on evaluating task force report
— Former Sen. Domenici to launch new initiative to promote nuclear energy

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