OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Climate policy advocate gets a seat at SOTU

THE FIRST LADY’S GUEST: Tyrone Davis, a Climate Corps fellow for the green group Environmental Defense Fund, will be one of the guests joining first lady Michelle Obama at the State of the Union address Tuesday evening.

While attending Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina, Davis showed the school how to achieve more than $31,000 a year in savings by eliminating roughly 200 tons of carbon emissions.

The invitation is a reassurance that Obama remains committed to “keep environmental issues on the forefront of national conversation,” the Environmental Defense Fund said in a statement on Tuesday.

Davis also met with Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy on Tuesday. McCarthy tweeted the encounter, calling Davis a “future climate leader.”

The EPA has received heightened scrutiny for its ambitious climate regulations, aimed at cutting carbon emissions from power plants.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY: The Natural Resources Defense Council, in conjunction with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and mayors from five other major cities across the U.S., will launch a new coalition aimed at reducing carbon pollution.

In total, 10 major U.S. cities will announce their participation in the effort that will cut carbon pollution from buildings and boost local economies.

Cities involved in the new coalition include Boston, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: As the EPA wraps up its public comment period on the proposed renewable fuel mandate for 2014, stakeholders plan to respond.

The American Petroleum Institute will hold a call to discuss the the comments. The oil industry is pretty happy with the environmental agency’s retreat on the amount of biofuels it set for 2014 that refiners must blend into the nation’s fuel supply.

The oil lobby would still like Congress to do away with the renewable fuel standard all together.

But Fuels America isn’t pleased with the administration’s proposal, which it says will increase the use of petroleum and cause a spike in carbon emissions.

Fuels America, which represents a number of biofuel companies, will discuss the president’s climate plan and the climate impacts of reducing domestic renewable fuel production on Wednesday.

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda…

The National Council for Science and Environment will continue its conference exploring solutions to climate change.

You can see the agenda here.

The Woodrow Wilson Center will discuss a new report on the search for energy in the Arctic.

The details are here.

AROUND THE WEB:

The Huffington Post reports that Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) will meet with CBS News President David Rhodes on Wednesday to discuss coverage of climate change issues.

The senators accused TV networks earlier this month of “ignoring” climate change on Sunday shows.

The New York TImes takes a look at the the loss of coal jobs in Kentucky and the great Appalachia region — a zone to which Obama promised to give renewed attention from Washington.

“But experts are broadly skeptical that any federal initiative would be enough to combat either the immediate economic upheaval caused by the loss of coal jobs or the long-term economic torpor that is a product of remoteness, poor infrastructure and an undereducated work force,” the article states.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out the stories that ran on E2-Wire on Tuesday…

– Restaurants ask EPA to cut back ethanol mandate
– GOP to use climate changes in California for midterms
– Energy, climate issues are in speech forefront
– Majority ranks climate action low on priority list
– Anti-Keystone ad to air during SOTU address