OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Industry execs to speak, feds won’t as shutdown drags on

Speakers include energy and environmental officials with the European Union, the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

NOT ON TAP THURSDAY: Remarks by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy at the Atlantic Council event mentioned above.

{mosads}McCarthy, thanks to the government shutdown, has canceled her appearance.

More broadly, the shutdown is depriving multiple events of high-profile federal speakers.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:“I was not the darling of my caucus, as you can imagine.” – Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), at Wednesday’s energy event hosted by the group Center Forward

Manchin’s referring to his joining Republicans in opposition to Ron Binz, President Obama’s former nominee to lead the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Manchin’s opposition made it all but impossible for Binz to win approval in the Senate’s Energy Committee, and Binz threw in the towel earlier this week.

LOBBYING & ADVOCACY WORLD: Executives from local chambers of commerce under the umbrella of Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy will spell out their priorities in meetings with Capitol Hill lawmakers on Thursday.

They will “communicate the role of clean energy for local businesses in America,” an advisory states.

Topics for the meetings will also include building support for the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill and legislation to enable green energy companies to use the “master limited partnership” tax structure.

AROUND THE WEB:

The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. is poised to overtake Russia this year as the world’s largest oil and natural-gas producer.

It’s a “startling shift that is reshaping energy markets and eroding the clout of traditional petroleum-rich nations,” the paper reports.

Reuters reports that Greenpeace activists could face long Russian prison terms for last month’s demonstration against Arctic oil drilling.

The Associated Press has the latest from BP’s civil trial for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Bloomberg reports that “aviation negotiators have begun final talks in Montreal over the creation of a carbon market for the world airline industry.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out these stories that ran on E2-Wire on Wednesday . . .

GOP senator calls out her party for energy bill riders

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Wednesday called out Republicans
who tried to pile ObamaCare amendments onto bipartisan energy efficiency
legislation that recently stalled on the Senate floor.

“What we need to reckon with is the fact that you have got a process
that is being used for political advantage and gain rather than to
advance policy,” she said. Click here for the whole story.

Shutdown batters conferences, think tank forums

The government shutdown is depriving energy and climate conferences of their star speakers.

Heather
Zichal, the top White House climate aide, had to scratch a Tuesday
evening keynote speech at the International Emissions Trading
Association’s big Carbon Forum North America conference.

Janet
McCabe, the Environmental Protection Agency’s top air pollution
regulator, nixed her planned Wednesday appearance at the same event. Click here for the whole story.

US coal production gets more top-heavy, data shows

A handful of companies account for a growing share of U.S. coal production, Energy Department data shows.

Over
the past two years, four companies accounted for 52 percent of
production, “the result of changes in regional production as well as
decades-long trends towards the concentration … around the top few
companies,” the Energy Information Administration said in a report Wednesday. Click here for the whole story.

GOP questions need for wind energy tax credit

Republican lawmakers signaled opposition Wednesday to renewing a tax
credit for wind farms, arguing it’s time for the industry to stand on
its own two feet.

Democrats and the wind industry say the
renewable electricity production tax credit is critical to
developing diverse sources of energy, but Republicans expressed
skepticism that the break is still needed. Click here for the whole story.

Extending wind tax credit would cost billions

Extending a tax credit for new wind farms would cost billions of
dollars over the next decade, according to congressional analysis
obtained by The Hill.

The tax credit for building wind facilities, which has been a top
priority of the White House, is set to expire at the end of 2013. Click here for the whole story.

Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman, ben.geman@digital-release.thehill.com

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