OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Here come the Keystone amendments

by Laura Barron-Lopez and Timothy Cama - 01/13/15 7:26 PM ET

KEYSTONE MOVES FORWARD: The Senate agreed to cut the clock short and move forward on legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline Tuesday afternoon.

The move to proceed kicks off the amendment process and debate on the Keystone bill which is expected to last for weeks.

{mosads}With the midnight vote averted the Senate put three amendments on the agenda for debate this week. Votes aren’t expected until next week. The three amendments seek to attach parts of an energy efficiency package, a ban on exports of oil shipped through the pipeline, and a requirement that Keystone be constructed out of U.S. steel to the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stressed that amendments offered by Democrats would not be blocked.

More on that here.

His office reiterated that sentiment and stressed that an amendment being pushed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to put the Senate on the record on climate change would not be blocked.

“The bill managers are working through amendments,” a spokesman from McConnell’s office said, adding that more amendments would be considered.

McConnell’s spokesman added that lawmakers will likely want to work on an agreement to consider the Sanders amendment, saying “no one is blocking that amendment.”

Greens rally… Activists, led by green groups 350.org, CREDO, Sierra Club and more, are staging rallies across the country Tuesday evening to press President Obama to reject the $8 billion oil sands pipeline outright.

Here’s a map of where rallies are being held.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: Ryan Lance, chief executive officer of oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips Co., will be the featured guest at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) event. He will talk about exporting crude oil and natural gas, both of which his company supports. CSIS’s Frank Verrastro will moderate.

ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: Greg Rickford, Canada’s minister of natural resources, is in town Tuesday and Wednesday, and will give a press conference Wednesday to summarize his visit. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), both supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline, met with Rickford Tuesday on his fifth visit to Washington.

Rest of Wednesday’s agenda…

The Washington Office on Latin America and Community Solutions will host a discussion on Cuba’s “energy revolution,” on which it embarked a decade ago, and what the rest of the world can learn from it. Mario Alberto Arrastía Avila, who oversaw the part of the campaign that encouraged Cubans to be more energy efficient and use more renewable energy sources, will be the featured speaker.

The Environmental Law Institute will give a webinar on the current state of litigation stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. It will feature two professors from New Orleans and a reporter from the Times-Picayune.

NEWS BITES:

Visiting a Kennedy a day keeps the doc away… Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz went to Capitol Hill Tuesday to visit with his congressman, Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Kennedy tweeted that it is “Always an honor to meet with” Moniz, a constituent of his from Brookline, Mass., and attached a photo of the two chatting.

Moniz responded that when he’s homesick, a visit with a Kennedy “always does the trick.”

Price plummet… The price of crude oil will bottom out at $46 a barrel this month before rising slowly throughout the rest of the year, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted Tuesday.

For the year as a whole, oil on the West Texas Intermediate benchmark will average $54.58 a barrel and rise to $71 next year, EIA said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook.

Gasoline has a similar picture. It will bottom out next month at $2.13 a gallon and average $2.33 for the year, EIA said.

AROUND THE WEB:

The drop in oil prices is likely to cause a recession in the oil-heavy Canadian province of Alberta, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reports.

New Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has appointed a controversial energy team, including a former congressional candidate who campaigned against regulations and a former fossil fuel lobbyist, the Boston Globe reports.

Following a report from National Public Radio and Mine Safety and Health News, federal regulators are cracking down on some of the thousands of unpaid mine regulation fines, NPR reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Tuesday’s stories…

– EPA to unveil methane leak rules for oil, gas

– Steyer ‘will decide soon‘ on Senate run

– Senate to vote on whether climate change is happening

– EPA wants to overhaul oil spill dispersant rules

– Obama environmental adviser to resign

– Food groups ask Obama to protect honeybees from pesticides

– Greens say House bill would destroy pollution rules

– EPA may loosen lead-based paint regs

– Poll: Majority of voters oppose more oil exports

– McConnell threatens midnight session over Keystone XL pipeline