OVERNIGHT ENERGY: McConnell, EPA head clash at hearing

MCCONNELL V. MCCARTHY: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took the rare step Wednesday of participating in a subcommittee hearing, in order to directly question Environmental Protection Agency head Gina McCarthy.

McConnell used the brief, 7-minute questioning time to confront McCarthy on her agency’s regulations, especially the carbon dioxide limits for power plants, that he says threaten the coal industry.

{mosads}”My constituents want their dignity restored, they want to be able to work, they want to be able to provide for their families,” McConnell said at the hearing of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee with authority over the EPA’s budget.

“You cannot guarantee your carbon regulations won’t cost my constituents jobs,” he said. “You cannot guarantee your carbon regulations won’t raise their utility bills.”

McCarthy stood strong against McConnell’s criticisms, saying the EPA is aiming to protect the interests of Kentucky and its residents.

“I believe that EPA has designed this plan in a way that we are respecting the current situation in states and their energy mixes, designing our standards to accommodate the reasonable benefits in terms of reducing carbon pollution, and what those states can do,” she said.

A NEW LEGAL PROBLEM?: McConnell presented McCarthy with what appears to be a new legal argument against the climate rule for power plants.

He said that while the EPA is hoping states establish multi-state agreements to comply with the rule, those agreements would have to be approved by Congress.

But McCarthy said she is confident the bill will stand up in the courts.

“I believe that we are acting under the authority that Congress gave us under the Clean Air Act and we are going to be producing a rule that is going to withstand the test of time in the courts,” she said.

Read more here.

ON TAP THURSDAY I: The Energy and Water appropriations bill will hit the House floor for amendments and votes. The Obama administration has threatened to veto the bill, should it get to his desk.

ON TAP THURSDAY II: The House Oversight Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on mismanagement at the EPA. Agency Inspector General Arthur Elkins will testify on a handful of investigations into misconduct at the agency over the past few years, along with Acting Deputy Administrator Stanley Meiburg and Deputy Chief of Staff John Reeder. 

Rest of Thursday’s agenda …

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on more than 20 bills in its jurisdiction.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will address the United States Energy Association’s annual membership meeting and public policy forum.

The Energy Committee’s Public Lands, Forests and Mining subcommittee will hear testimony on the Bureau of Land Management’s new hydraulic fracturing rule for federal land. 

Christopher Smith, the assistant Energy secretary for fossil energy, will testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve section of the committee’s forthcoming energy bill. 

A State Department official will speak on the national security implications of the energy boom at a University of Texas event in Washington.

Kathryn Sullivan, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will speak at a Center for American Progress event on climate change resilience. 

AROUND THE WEB:

Up to half the lakes and streams in southern Minnesota are too polluted for safe swimming or fishing, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. 

U.S. energy demand has slowed and “is not anticipated to return to growth levels seen in the second half of the 20th century,” according to the Energy Information Administration.

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is opening a new fight against trains carrying oil sands from Canada through California, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. 

Contaminated soil from the bankrupt Freedom Industries, which spilled toxic substances into a major river in West Virginia, might go to a landfill in Charleston, the Charleston Gazette reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 

Check out Wednesday’s stories … 

– WH threatens veto of GOP bill to kill water regs 
– Poll: Voters would support 10-cent gas tax hike
– McConnell confronts EPA chief on climate rules
– House panel passes bill to delay, weaken EPA climate rule
– California sets ambitious emissions target
– Billionaire environmentalist to host Clinton fundraiser
– UK ordered to cut air pollution

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