The week ahead: Industry, advocates await Obama’s energy team

Front-runners have emerged for both posts, with an official announcement from Obama expected any day now.

For EPA, Gina McCarthy appears to have the lead. She is currently the agency’s assistant administrator of air and radiation.

And for DOE, Obama is reportedly leaning toward physicist Ernest Moniz. A former undersecretary of Energy in the Clinton administration, Moniz is well known in Washington circles and currently directs the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative.

There’s a light menu of Hill hearings this week, though the House Energy and Commerce Committee is serving up two hearty offerings.

On Tuesday, the committee will take a look at private-sector innovations in energy efficiency technology.

The jam-packed witness list includes Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Kathleen Hogan, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency with DOE.

And on Thursday, two Energy and Commerce subcommittees will hear from all four commissioners on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), along with NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane.

But if Capitol Hill doesn’t satiate the energy-hungry, several other Washington-area events scheduled for this week should do the job.

The annual Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) Innovation Summit will take place Monday through Wednesday at the Gaylord Hotel in D.C.’s National Harbor.

The event focuses on cutting-edge energy technology and how to get it to the marketplace — much like the research and development program that sponsors it. Top minds from academia, business and government will be in attendance.

The list of speakers includes New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Murkowski.

A pair of commissioners for the federal electric grid regulator headlines another three-day conference beginning Monday in Washington.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission commissioners Cheryl LaFleur and Phil Moeller will address Infocast’s Transmission Summit at the Almas Temple Club.

The event will explore changes in the electric grid industry brought on by switching to natural-gas-fired generation, along with other issues regarding infrastructure planning and investment.

Also on Monday, a forum will look at the implications energy, food and climate change have for U.S.-Japan relations following Friday’s visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Hosted by the U.S. Japanese Research Institute, the 10 a.m. event will take place at the Embassy Row Hotel. Panelists include Simla Tokgoz, a research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute, and Yacov Tsur, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Geothermal Energy Association will host its annual state of the industry event Tuesday, with Wyden delivering the keynote remarks at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill. Dan Utech, White House deputy director for energy and climate change, will also speak.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) is the guest speaker at the Natural Gas Roundtable Tuesday at the University Club. The lunch event will look at the role of natural gas in America’s future.

The Climate Leadership Conference will run Wednesday through Friday at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel. The annual event examines how to combat global climate change through policy, innovation and business practices.

Speakers include Acting EPA Administrator Bob Perciasepe and Jon Powers, federal environmental executive with the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

On Wednesday, the Bipartisan Policy Center will reveal a set of policy recommendations to take advantage of the nation’s changing energy landscape.

Bipartisan Policy Center Energy Project co-chairmen Trent Lott and Byron Dorgan, both former senators, will speak at the National Press Club briefing. Retired Gen. James L. Jones, who served as Obama’s national security adviser, and former George H.W. Bush EPA Administrator William Reilly will also discuss the white paper.

Shell CEO Peter Voser will discuss the oil giant’s scenario planning in a 2 p.m. Thursday event hosted by the Center for Strategic International Studies.

The event will unpack Shell’s “New Lens Scenarios,” which will help guide the company’s future planning. The scenarios take into account economic, political and social trends coming to the fore through the next several decades and how they impact energy.