It is the final week for Congress to push for last-minute bills before the August recess, but all seems quiet on the climate change and energy fronts. After passing a last-minute bill on Friday to reorganize federal agencies that oversee offshore drilling, add safety standards and impose new ethics regarding offshore drilling, nothing further is scheduled in the House. The Senate is still trying to schedule a vote on Majority Leader Reid’s “energy and oil-spill response” bill, but may not find time due to a confirmation vote hearing on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. One oversight hearing is scheduled on the dispersants for the Gulf Oil spill but it seems many topics will be pushed back until after summer recess.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a hearing entitled, “Oversight Hearing on the Use of Oil Dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.” The issues raised regarding 1.8 million gallons of dispersant used to break up oil from the Gulf leak have already started to drive new scientific research and debate. The hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Witnesses include Paul Anastas, assistant administrator in U.S. EPA’s Office of Research and Development; David Westerholm, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration; Ronald Kendall, professor of environmental toxicology and director of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health at Texas Tech University; David Smith, oceanography professor and associate dean of the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island; Edward Overton, professor emeritus in the environmental science department at Louisiana State University; and Jackie Savitz, senior scientist and pollution campaign director at Oceana.

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This is a relatively quiet-some might say anti-climactic-week in the Congress with respect to energy and climate change issues.  There is not much happening in any of the Senate or House committees, save for a hearing on the “Clean Energy Economy” on Tuesday in the Joint Economic Committee.  But it is what is not happening on the floor of the Senate that has most observers interested: this week, the Senate is expected to take up-and probably pass-an energy bill that doesn’t contain any language that directly addresses the regulation of greenhouse gases. 

Sens. Kerry and Lieberman originally introduced legislation that would create an economy-wide cap and trade regime.  That got pared down to a proposal to cap and trade the emissions from utilities only, but when 60 votes could not be found for even that proposal, its inclusion into an energy bill was nixed altogether.  Also jettisoned was a proposal to have a renewable energy standard mandated for utilities.  That leaves a less ambitious energy bill that contains incentives for renewables, the removal of the cap on oil spill liability, incentives for natural gas vehicles, the HomeStar program, and reforms of the on outer-continental shelf drilling.  This effectively kills climate change legislation for this year.  Keep an eye on the debate over the Rockefeller Amendment, which would delay any new EPA greenhouse gas regulations for two years in hopes that the stick of impending regulations would provide Congress with the incentive to create its own legislation.

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All eyes are on the Senate this week as supporters of efforts to cap carbon emissions are desperately trying to secure inclusion of modest provisions for a cap in an expected Senate energy bill.  The legislation, being written by Senator Bingaman in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will include measures on renewable energy, “green-tech” jobs, Gulf oil spill liability provisions, a tax incentive title, advanced automotive technology, and possibly language that caps greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.  This last provision is all that remains from an ambitious economy-wide bill that was proposed by Sens. Lieberman and Kerry earlier this year.  The debate is set to begin next Tuesday, so an agreement between Sens. Kerry-Lieberman, and the interested stakeholders (utilities and environmental groups) would likely have to occur this week.  Without an agreement, there probably will not be any serious proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions until next year, leaving regulation by EPA under the Clean Air Act as the primary driver of emissions reductions.

Much of the Committees’ focus will continue to be on the efforts in the Gulf.  The Senate Commerce Committee will hold back-to-back hearings on the subject, first on the status of clean up efforts, followed by a mark-up of legislation on Thursday to reform federal oil spill response authorities.  The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday to examine the Department of Interior’s role in regulating deep water wells, a hearing that could highlight partisan differences, as former Secretary Gail Norton and current Secretary Ken Salazar share the witness panel.  Finally, on an unrelated topic, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a Wednesday hearing on Federal green building guidelines.

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Washington D.C. will host the first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial on July 19-20, 2010, gathering ministers and official delegations from nearly two dozen governments to collaborate on long-term policies and programs for a global transition to clean energy technologies.  To be hosted by the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, the Clean Energy Ministerial is an initiative of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (”MEF”), which is comprised of 17 major developed and developing economies.

In July of 2009, the MEF initiated a Global Partnership to promote the advancement of low-carbon and climate-friendly technologies while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The MEF requested that the Global Partnership create a set of Technology Action Plans directed to ten clean energy technologies that would address more than 80% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction potential for the energy sector, as recognized by the International Energy Agency (”IEA”).  The MEF also intended for the Technology Action Plans to encourage efforts among interested countries to advance action on technologies such as-

• advanced vehicles
• bioenergy
• carbon capture, use & storage
• cross cutting R&D (i.e., clean energy R&D)
• energy efficiency in the buildings and industrial sectors
• high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal technologies
• marine energy
• smart grids
• solar energy
• wind energy

In December 2009, the MEF’s Global Partnership released these Technology Action Plans, summarizing the information generated by government experts and describing possible roadmaps to advance the development and deployment of these clean energy technologies.  The Technology Action Plans also propose the foundations for long-term policy commitments that would enable governments and the private sector to speed the adoption of clean energy technologies, as well as the means to overcome current barriers to the adoption of these technologies, such as regulatory barriers and the high costs of adopting the technologies, in pursuit of the common goal of a global, low-carbon economy. 

The MEF’s Clean Energy Ministerial will provide an opportunity to discuss these Technology Action Plans, including the policy obligations needed to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technologies.  The agenda also incorporates specific discussions relating to “Energy Efficiency/Smart Grid,” “Clean Energy Supply,” and “Energy Access” during the Public Forum on July 20. 

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Congress begins its four-week sprint before summer recess and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill remains at the top of Congress’ agenda. Monday brought a revised draft of the offshore drilling ban from the Obama Administration, while various committees in the House will meet for research and development acts and reorganizing agencies related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Later in the week, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will meet to review and discuss the various energy bills still in negotiation.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The House Science and Technology Committee will hold a markup hearing on The Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Reauthorization Act of 2010 and The Safer Oil and Natural Gas Drilling Technology Research and Development Act. The full committee hearing will be held at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

The House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on reorganizing the Office of Federal Energy and Minerals Leasing of the Department of the Interior tasked with overseeing offshore oil and gas drilling. This hearing will be lead by Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) at 10:00 a.m. in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building.

The House Committee on Agriculture will hold a markup hearing in regards to H.R. 4785, the Rural Energy Savings Program Act, that would help create a new loan program for rural communities to add new and improve energy efficient technology in homes. The hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. in Room 1300 of the Longworth House Office Building.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a markup hearing of nine energy bills. The hearing is scheduled for 10:15 a.m. in Room 366 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. This will most likely be the beginning of many energy bill meetings in the hill over the next four weeks.

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Issues, however related to national energy policy, continue to derail chances for floor time for the Kerry-Lieberman Climate bill.  Last week, the  controversy surrounding Gen. Stanley McChrystal caused postponement of the meeting Sens. Kerry, Lieberman and other interested Democrats had scheduled with President Obama.  This week, the meeting is back on, but it comes on the heels of the death of Senator Byrd and the beginning of the Supreme Court confirmation process of U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan.  Even without those two events, vote counting on the Kerry-Lieberman legislation seems a long way from the 60 votes necessary for passage and might not yet have even a majority in favor.

This week brings more hearings on various aspects of the Gulf of Mexico spill with sessions in the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources in the House on Wednesday.  The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on oil spill accountability on Wednesday as well.  On Thursday the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on oil spill legislation, and the Senate HELP Committee will hold a hearing on BP’s worker safety record.  Also this week look for activity on the 2012 Farm Bill, this will provide ample opportunity for expanding many of the renewable and biomass energy proposals that were included in the previous bill.

Wednesday, June 30

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing entitled “Legislation to Respond to the BP Oil Spill and to Prevent Future Oil Well Blowouts” in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce at 9:30 a.m. in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  At 10 a.m. the House Committee on Natural Resources has scheduled the Honorable Ken Salazar, Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior to testify at a hearing on drilling regulation legislation in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building. Also that morning, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will conduct a spill-related hearing entitled “The Deepwater Horizon Tragedy: Holding Industry Accountable” at 10 a.m. in Room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Also on Wednesday, the House Committee on Appropriations will conduct a markup of the agriculture spending bill at 1 p.m. in Room 2362-A of the Rayburn House Office Building, and the Senate Committee on Agriculture will hold a 9:30 a.m. hearing in Room 328-A of the Russell Senate Office Building regarding the 2012 farm bill. 

Thursday, July 1

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions has a 10 a.m. hearing entitled “Workplace Safety and Worker Protections at BP” in Room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has a 11 a.m. markup scheduled to discuss the oil spill bill in Room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building. 

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 It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Capitol Hill will again focus this week on the Gulf oil spill. While last week featured testimony from Big Oil executives, Joe Barton’s apology to BP for the White House’s actions and BP’s agreement to create a $20 billion dollar escrow for damages related to the spill, this week is not likely to produce similar theatrics.  The House Committee on Science and Technology will discuss deepwater drilling and spill cleanup technology, and the House Committee on Natural Resources will hear testimony from government officials on spill response plans on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.  The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a Tuesday hearing on reducing oil consumption with electric-drive vehicle deployment and a Thursday hearing on oil spill legislation. 

Tuesday, June 22

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will conduct a 10 a.m. hearing on the deployment of electric-drive vehicles in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Wednesday, June 23

At a 10 a.m. hearing in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the House Committee on Science and Technology will hear testimony regarding deepwater drilling and cleanup response.  Also at 10 a.m., the House Committee on Education and Labor will hold a hearing entitled “Worker Health and Safety from the Oil Rig to the Shoreline” in Room 2175 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Thursday, June 24 

The House Committee on Natural Resources will conduct a 10 a.m. hearing on oil response planning in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building.  Also that morning the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing to discuss oil spill legislation in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

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Energy policy on the Hill this week again revolves around the Gulf spill.  Congress, it seems, may now be coalescing around efforts to raise the oil spill liability cap.  That debate appears to hinge on whether to raise the cap for the entire oil and gas industry and apply the new cap retroactively to BP (an idea favored by many Democrats) or raise the cap retroactively only for BP (an idea floated by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) this weekend).  At any rate, there seems to be broad agreement that a new cap will be applied retroactively to BP. 

The President will address the nation this Wednesday on the continuing efforts in the Gulf, and the Senate and House will continue to hold hearings this week on the oil and gas industry, oversight of the industry, and the health and environmental impacts of the oil spill.  On Tuesday, there will be an oversight hearing in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and a hearing on estimating oil spill volume in the House Committee on Natural Resources.  Those two committees will round out the week on Thursday with hearings in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, examining BP’s role in the spill, and in House Committee on Natural Resources on the role of the Mineral Management Service.  Also this week, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will have a hearing on the health effects of the spill.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will also have a hearing on Wednesday to mark up a clean energy bill introduced by Representatives Masui (D-CA) and Rush (D-IL) to help promote the development of American-made clean energy technology.  The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will also hold a mark up of energy bills, examining legislation that aims to install 10 million solar energy water heaters over ten years and legislation that would allow the federal government to enter into power purchase agreements with local utilities, hopefully speeding the adoption of alternative energy.

Tuesday, June 15

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a 9:30 a.m. hearing in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building on “Drilling Down on America’s Energy Future: Safety, Security, and Clean Energy.” Scheduled to testify are Rex Tillerson, Chairman and CEO, ExxonMobil; John Watson, Chairman and CEO, Chevron Corporation; James Mulva, Chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips; Lamar McKay, President and Chairman, BP America; and Marvin Odum, President, Shell Oil Company.  The House Committee on Natural Resources will also hold a hearing that morning entitled “Ocean Science and Data Limits in a Time of Crisis: Do NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) have the Resources to Respond?“  The 10 a.m. hearing will take place in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building.

In the Senate, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources will hold a hearing on current energy bills at 2:30 p.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.  Also at that time, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing entitled “Evaluating the Health Impacts of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill” in Room 430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Wednesday, June 16

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will conduct a 10 a.m. hearing on clean tech manufacturing bills in Room 2322 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a 2:30 p.m. hearing on HHS Actions to Identify and Address Health Effects of the BP Oil Spill in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  Then at 3 p.m., the Senate Committee on Homeland Security will hold a hearing entitled “The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: Ensuring a Financially Responsible Recovery” in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Thursday, June 17

In the House, the Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing on BP’s role in the spill at 10 a.m. in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  Also at 10 a.m., the House Committee on Natural Resources will conduct a hearing in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building entitled “The Deepwater Horizon Incident: Are The Minerals Management Service Regulations Doing The Job?“

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In a 53-47 vote late Thursday afternoon, the Senate rejected a highly-anticipated resolution disapproving of EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under its current Clean Air Act Authority.  The resolution, if passed by both Chambers and signed by the president, would have nullified EPA’s December 2009 endangerment finding, undermining EPA’s basis for regulating CO2 under the Clean Air Act. 

All Republicans in the Senate voted against the resolution and six Democrats–Evan Bayh of Indiana, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia–crossed party lines voting in favor of the resolution.  The President, who had promised to veto the resolution if it reached his desk, released a statement praising the vote.

Yesterday’s vote, however, may be just the first of several efforts to block EPA from regulating carbon emissions, as Senator Rockefeller (D-WV) has introduced legislation to prevent EPA from regulating emissions from stationary sources for the next two years, and Senator Voinovich (R-OH) has introduced legislation blocking the federal government from regulating carbon emissions outside of a climate bill.

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Congress returns to pick up where it left off before the Memorial Day recess.  Much of the focus will be on extending expiring tax credits and deductions by passing a “tax extenders” bill that was shelved before the recess after moderate Democrats balked at the cost of the proposed legislation.  Meanwhile, the Gulf spill continues to reverberate in Congress with hearings in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (on the oil liability trust fund), the Senate Committee on Education and Labor (on oil drilling safety) and several other committees.

The politics of the spill appear to have given some momentum to Senator Kerry’s and Senator Lieberman’s efforts to bring up a comprehensive climate bill.  Embedded within that proposal is an expansion of offshore drilling, written to gain Republican support, but now likely to face a Democratic backlash.  Also percolating this will be a floor vote on a resolution by Sen. Lisa Murkowski to strip EPA of its authority to regulate CO₂ emissions.  Her resolution has 41 cosponsors and needs only 51 votes to pass.  As of this time it is unknown whether Senator Rockefeller, who has his own version of the resolution, or Senator Casey and Senator Carper, who have their own, would offer their proposals as amendments to Senator Murkowski’s.

Tuesday, June 8

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary will conduct a hearing entitled “The Risky Business of Big Oil: Have Recent Court Decisions and Liability Caps Encouraged Irresponsible Corporate Behavior?” at 10 a.m. in Room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Wednesday, June 9

The Honorable Ken Salazar will testify at a Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on issues related to the Department of the Interior’s May 27th report entitled “Increased Safety Measures for Energy Development on the Outer Continental Shelf.”  The hearing takes place at 9:30 a.m. in Room 366 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.  Also that morning, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works will hold a 10:30 a.m. hearing in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building on “S.3305, The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act of 2010.”

Also on Wednesday, the House will conduct two hearings related to the spill.  At 10 a.m. The House Committee on Science and Technology will conduct a hearing on oil spill cleanup technology in Room 2318 of the Rayburn House Office Building.  At 10:30 a.m. the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will hold a hearing on the “Liability and Financial Responsibility for Oil Spills under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and Related Statutes” in Room 2167 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Thursday, June 10

Hearings related to the Gulf spill continue on Thursday with two hearings in the Senate and one in the House.  In the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a hearing on “Production over Protections: A Review of Process Safety Management in the Oil and Gas Industry” will take place at 10 a.m. in Room 430 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.  The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, at a 10 a.m. hearing, will address the effects of the spill on states, localities and the private sector in Room 342 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building.  Also that morning, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources will conduct a hearing on the environmental impacts of the spill at 10 a.m. in Room 1324 of the Longworth House Office Building.

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