HOUSE GOP SETTLES ON CLIMATE RULE STRATEGY: House Republicans unveiled their new strategy Monday to attack the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate rule through delay and state vetoes.
The rule would take effect only after all court challenges are finished, and a state’s governor would have the authority to veto any potential plan — from the state or from the EPA — to comply with it if he or she thinks it would threaten electricity prices or reliability.
{mosads}Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on energy and power, unveiled the draft bill Monday.
“This rule is particularly controversial,” Whitfield told reporters. “It’s unprecedented in the power that they’re trying to grab here from the states, and they’re significantly changing the way they are looking at compliance with these [carbon dioxide] regulations in each state.”
The GOP really wants to overturn the rule, but Whitfield and his colleagues felt delay was a more attainable tactic.
Read more about the plan here.
BP BOOTS ALEC: Oil giant BP has parted ways with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
The conservative state-level lobbying group has received flack recently for its positions opposing efforts to fight climate change, and many companies have left it recently and cited climate as a reason.
BP didn’t say whether climate factored in.
“We continually assess our engagements with policy and advocacy organizations and based on our most recent assessment, we have determined that we can effectively pursue policy matters of current interest to BP without renewing our membership in ALEC,” a spokesman said.
Read more here.
ON TAP TUESDAY I: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will speak Tuesday at a Bipartisan Policy Center event about nuclear waste. The speech will look back at a 2012 blue-ribbon commission report that the Energy Department prepared on how the United States could establish a permanent nuclear waste site such as Yucca Mountain. Moniz was not Energy secretary at the time, but he participated in the commission.
ON TAP TUESDAY I:
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subpanel on the environment on Tuesday will continue the hearing it started last week on its bill to change the EPA’s coal ash disposal rule. The hearing’s featured witness will be Mathy Stanislaus, the EPA’s assistant administrator for solid waste. Later in the day, the subcommittee will begin its meeting to vote on the bill.
Rest of Tuesday’s agenda …
The House Science Committee’s subcommittee on energy will hold a hearing Tuesday on oversight of the Energy Department’s renewable energy office. David Danielson, the assistant energy secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, will testify, along with representatives from the Heritage Foundation, George Mason University’s Mercatus Center and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.
The Energy Department, Interior Department and Army Corps of Engineers will hold a ceremony Tuesday to sign a new memorandum of understanding aimed at promoting hydropower.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday on improving forest health and socioeconomic opportunities in the national forest system. It will feature U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie and representatives of local governments and the private sector.
The House Natural Resources Committee will meet Tuesday to vote on nine bills.
Activists from the Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and World Wildlife Fund will hold a rally outside the White House on the dangers of offshore drilling to highlight the 26th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The Distributed Wind Energy Association will start its two-day annual convention Tuesday. It will feature a keynote speech by Jose Zayas, director of the Energy Department’s renewable energy office; another keynote by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Philip Moeller; and speeches and panels by various other government and private sector officials.
The Defense Leadership Forum will host its American Energy Summit Tuesday.
Budget hearings ….
The House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a hearing on the agency’s 2016 budget request.
Subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee will hold hearings on the 2016 budget requests from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, the Power Marketing Administration and the United States Geological Survey.
AROUND THE WEB:
At a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee field hearing in West Virginia, witnesses agreed that the state could be hit harder than others by the EPA’s climate rule, the Register-Herald reports.
A top Chinese official admitted that climate change could have a “huge impact” on the country, a rare admission, BBC News reports.
Some companies in Philadelphia want to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal in the city on the banks of the Delaware River, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Monday stories …
Oil giant breaks with conservative group
Chemical in paint remover found dangerous for pregnant women
GOP bill delays climate rule, gives states veto
Sen. Inhofe scrutinizes new White House climate adviser
Nevada Republican opens door to Yucca nuclear waste dump
Harvard Law professors fight over EPA’s climate rule
Week ahead: Supreme Court to hear challenge to EPA power plant regs
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