News

“So Very Hideous an Idea”:One Last Push for Land-Grab Monstrosity in Resources Coined by Hastings the“Frankenstein” Omnibus – 1,400 Pages, Millions of Acres Locked Away. Greenwire(12/2, subs. req’d) reports, “Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) struck a gothic tonein sounding off against Senate Democrats’ eleventh-hour effort to pass a bundleof stalled waterways, public lands and wildlife bills before this Congressends. Citing staff research and "reliable private accounts," Hastingssaid the "monstrous" measure could include as many as 126 individualbills, total 1,400 pages and authorize $10 billion in additional spending."Somewhere in the Senate, Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer are secretlyconstructing a Frankenstein omnibus of bills from three separatecommittees," said Hastings, who is expected to head the House NaturalResources Committee next year. "Democratic leaders are ignoring theoverwhelming message sent by voters in November that they wanted an end to thebackroom deals that produce giant bills loaded with new spending andjob-killing policies." Hastings was the second GOP leader in as many daysto publicly condemn the proposed package, the contents of which remain undernegotiation, according to Senate leaders.

“We’re Freezing”:Working-Class Folk Among the First to Feel the Bite of Salazar OffshoreMoratorium – Dearth of Home Heating Fuel Sends Prices Thru the Roof. Atlanta Journal-Constitution (12/2) reports, “As metro Atlanta’stemperatures grow colder, the demand for heat is, well, heating up. A day afterhundreds of people queued up outside a Marietta community center to apply forassistance with heat and power bills, hopeful applicants began lining up againaround midnight, waiting in the sub-freezing temperatures for the doors to openThursday morning. This time, however, officials let those in line come into theMansour Center on Roswell Street an hour early at 7:30 and get relief fromtemperatures that dropped to 27 degrees. “We’re freezing,” said Lecher Eady, aMarietta mother who arrived at midnight seeking help with her bills. “Our handsare cold, our feet are cold.” Eady, the mother of triplets in diapers, said shehas been out of work since August. “I’ve had three jobs this year, and I’vebeen laid off from all three,” she said. “I’m grateful just to get any type ofhelp they’ll give me.” That heating assistance will come in handy next week,when a surge of cold Canadian air will send overnight lows in metro Atlantaplummeting to the low 20s, with afternoon highs warming only into the mid-40s.

He Really Said This: Sen.Harkin Justifies $0.45 Tariff Wall Preventing Ethanol Imports from AccessingU.S. Markets on Basis that It “Comes Back to Consumers in Cheaper Gas Prices.”(!) The Hill (12/2) reports, “Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Thursday thatexpiring ethanol tax credits he’s battling to extend could hitch a ride on apossible omnibus appropriations package. “If we have an omnibus, the chancesare pretty good we might get that in the omnibus,” Harkin told reporters in theCapitol. However, the prospects for a catch-all federal spending package ratherthan a continuing resolution that maintains current spending levels are highlyuncertain. Harkin and other Corn Belt lawmakers are battling to extend thecredit that provides refiners and gasoline blenders 45 cents for each gallon ofethanol mixed into gasoline — an incentive supporters call vital toensuring a robust ethanol market. The tax credit and an import tariff thatprotects the domestic industry expire at the end of the year, and ethanol advocatesare battling a left-right coalition that’s trying to kill the incentives.Harkin said it’s unclear if there are enough votes for extending the credits.“I hope so,” he said. “The 45 cents per gallon comes back to consumers incheaper gasoline prices. Consumers are better off.

Enviros’ GOP “Plant” on theOil Spill Commission Not Exactly Working Out as Planned – Reilly SaysDevelopment Stall in the Gulf Shouldn’t Be Used to Justify Stall in Alaska. E&E News(12/2, subs. req’d) reports, “The co-chairman of the presidential oil spillcommission warned today against stalling Arctic oil and gas exploration forstudies of competing interests in the region’s waters. William Reilly, a formerU.S. EPA administrator and co-chairman of the National Commission on the BPDeepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, outlined several issues inthe Arctic debate, ranging from economic drivers and ecosystem impacts tothreats to native groups. "All these competing views point to aprecautionary approach for drilling in the Arctic, and a number of areaswarrant targeted research," Reilly said. "But the need for additionalresearch should not be used as a de facto moratorium but instead be carried outwith specific timeline drivers in mind." Arctic drilling should proceedcarefully, Reilly said. "That doesn’t mean cease operations until you’re100 percent sure of a satisfactory conclusion," he said. Reilly’s remarkscame as the seven-member panel deliberated on recommendations it will make toPresident Obama next month in a report on its investigation. The comments alsocame a day after the Interior Department announced it is open to possible leasesales in Arctic waters before 2017.

Oops: Only Weeks AfterReleasing New Rules Governing Industrial Boilers, EPA Forced to Admit New RegsWere Not “Achievable” – Another Embarrassment for Jackson. Greenwire(12/2, subs. req’d) reports, “Having taken comment on controversial newregulations for industrial boilers, U.S. EPA now believes that some pollutionlimits in the draft rules "were simply too tight to be able to beachievable," the agency’s air chief said today, signaling that the agencyis readying final regulations that won’t be as tough on businesses. When EPAissued the proposal in April, the agency was scrambling to meet a courtdeadline, said Gina McCarthy, the agency’s assistant administrator for air andradiation, on the sidelines of an event in Washington, D.C. There are manyindustries that use boilers to power their operations, and the agency had verylittle information on some of them. As a result, she said, the proposedstandards were "very difficult to achieve in certain sectors — which wedid not know," she said. "Now that we have the information at hand,it changes the calculation entirely," McCarthy added. "I think theanxiety really isn’t so much about the rule itself — it’s about making surethat we’re paying attention to the data that comes in, and that the datainforms a more robust decision. And it will." "The rule was based ona hypothetical boiler and emissions mix that didn’t conform to reality,"Walls said.

Hands Down the Best Part ofthese Int’l Climate Kleptocrat Conferences: The Never-Ending String of AwesomeJungle Metaphors. See Below, In Bold.Bloomberg (12/3) reports, “The U.S. pressed China to do more atclimate-change talks in Copenhagen last year. Now, as the U.S. falls short ofits own goals, China may have gained more credibility in renewed negotiationsby moving to clean up its energy industry. “TheU.S. is a wounded elephant,” Pa Ousman Jarju, Gambia’s climate envoy, saidin an interview on Dec. 1. “The elephanthad been moving very slowly, but now it’s limping. We have to be realistic.We know there’s nothing they can push here because of their domesticcircumstances.” The U.S. is pushing in Cancun for nations to embrace theCopenhagen accord, which calls for rich and fast-growing economies to cutemissions by 2020. It also envisions a system to measure and verify emissioncuts and proposes a $100 billion fund to channel climate aid to developingnations. The U.S. wants that to be the foundation of a new treaty. Japan saysit makes no sense to extend the Kyoto agreement without the two biggestpolluting nations subject to its terms. “Without the active participation ofthe two biggest emitters, namely China and the United States, it’s not a globaleffort,” Kuni Shimada, special adviser to Japanese environment minister RyuMatsumoto, said in an interview.

$40 Billion: No, Not theAmount that the Chinese Are Investing in Pinwheels and Suncatchers – theAmount They’re Investing in Developing Venezuela’s Offshore Oil.Wall Street Journal (12/3) reports, “China’s three mainstate-owned oil companies have strengthened their ties to Venezuela’s energysector, signing six agreements and increasing their investments to a planned$40 billion. The deals are the latest of a string of multibillion-dollar SouthAmerican ventures signed by Chinese companies in recent months, aimed atacquiring major chunks of the continent’s rich resources and at helping fuelChina’s economic boom. Among the agreements signed was one by China NationalPetroleum Corp.’s chairman, Jiang Jiemin, and Venezuela Oil Minister RafaelRamirez for the joint development of an oil block in the Orinoco basin, theCNPC said in its in-house newspaper Friday. It said the agreement had beensigned Wednesday. The cost of developing the block—known as Junin 4 andcapable of producing 400,000 barrels of crude daily—could be as much as$16 billion, with the block developed as a 60:40 joint venture by state-ownedPetroleos de Venezuela SA and CNPC, the two companies said in April when theyagreed to a preliminary pact.

You Heard the One About thePolish Guy Who Developed 47 Trillion Cubic Feet of Shale Gas In His Country?How Do You Say “Oh Sh*t” in Russian? Bloomberg (12/2) reports, “ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest U.S. energycompany, and Eastern European partner Lane Energy Poland plan to drill anotherexploratory well for natural gas in a Polish shale formation. Lane Energy thisyear drilled two vertical wells at its license in northern Poland. The companyis now testing the results and getting ready to drill a horizontal well in thesame area in the second quarter of 2011 and results should be ready by the endof next year, Kamlesh Parmar, Country Manager at Lane Energy Poland, said todayduring a conference in Warsaw. Shale drilling, where rock formations arehorizontally drilled and fractured using water and chemicals under highpressure, is driving a surge in U.S. natural-gas output. It last year made thecountry the world’s largest gas producer, overtaking Russia, and drove priceslower. Poland’s reserves of shale and tight gas may be as much as 3 trillioncubic meters, according to estimates by Advanced Resources International. Thatcould potentially turn the country into a net exporter of gas and reduceEurope’s dependence on Russian supplies.

Kish: New Obama OffshoreBan will “kill production, kill revenue, kill jobs and kill consumer hopes foraffordable fuel and a sane energy policy.”Washington Times (12/3) editorializes, “Virginia has becomethe latest victim of the Obama administration’s war against the domesticdrilling industry. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday thatwaters off Virginia and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico will remain closed todrilling through 2017 despite the commonwealth’s strong desire for oil and gasproduction. The moratorium will cost the Old Dominion jobs and tax revenuewhile further undermining America’s domestic energy industry. New drilling offVirginia might have helped make up that gap, at least in the long-term. Thefederal Minerals Management Service estimated that as much as 750 millionbarrels of oil and 6.65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas lie off Virginia’scoast. Mr. Obama and Mr. Salazar, doing the bidding of environmental radicals,are keeping those mineral riches off limits. In October, the Southeast EnergyAlliance estimated the commonwealth would gain 1,900 jobs and a $365 millionannual boost to its economy from drilling that’s now denied. If Virginia wereallowed the same percentage of proceeds as Gulf states, state government couldgarner up to $250 million annually. Those jobs and earnings are now off thetable for at least seven years. Dan Kish, policy chief for the industry-backed Institutefor Energy Research and former chief of staff for the House Natural ResourcesCommittee, uses even harsher words. "These guys have declared war onconventional fuels … and on the American public, frankly," he told TheWashington Times. The Obama administration has forsworn the idea of"drill, baby, drill" for that of "kill, baby, kill" – killproduction, kill revenue, kill jobs and kill consumer hopes for affordable fueland a sane energy policy.”

Did the E&C Rs Forgetthe Roll-Over Vote on the Blowout Prevention Act? You Know, the Bill that WouldPut Every Oil and Gas Well Under Federal Jurisdiction, Including Those onPrivate and State Lands? E&C Republicans (12/1) write for Politico, “With a newcongressional session comes a recycling of the old proposal to raid thejurisdiction of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This seems a bizarremoment to advance the idea that a group, which didn’t stand up to the BarackObama-Nancy Pelosi axis on its radical energy and environmental initiatives,should now take over the work of the committee that did. Remember cap andtrade? What was supposed to be an unstoppable, greased-pig markup on the Obamaadministration’s signature cap-and-trade bill was turned into a fight by the 23determined Republicans on Energy and Commerce. Four long days and nights spentin Room 2123 of the Rayburn building found Republicans sharply disputingDemocrats and their theories about global warming and the U.S. economy. Dealswere offered and rejected, while 300 Republican amendments piled up on theclerk’s desk and majority members were forced into extended debate on 47 of them.”Flashback: Texas Railroad Commission comes out swinging against HR 5626.

Headline Says it All:“Unleashing U.S. Energy Resources Could Spark Economic Recovery,” if theGovernment Leased Some Land, Issued a Few Permits. Ben Lieberman (12/2) writes for the Washington Examiner, “Among the many suggestions for deficitreduction in the recently released Fiscal Commission report is a 15cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax. There is a better way.If raising energy-related revenues is the goal, why not fill federal coffers ina manner that actually reduces the price at the pump? Washington can accomplishthis by allowing more oil drilling. The federal government controls alloffshore areas beyond three miles from the coast, as well as vast expanses ofenergy-rich western lands. Unfortunately, only a fraction of these areas havebeen opened to energy leasing, due to legislative and regulatory restrictions.For example, a 2008 Department of the Interior report concluded that only 8percent of the estimated 31 billion barrels of oil beneath federal lands isfully available for leasing, while 30 percent is subject to significantrestrictions and 62 percent is entirely off-limits. America’ offshore areashold even greater potential but are also constrained. No other energy-producingnation on Earth has limited its own energy producing potential to this extent.Even with these restrictions, revenues from new energy leases reached $10billion dollars in 2008.”

The Great Green Revitalization?Not So Fast, Says Michigan Town That Was Home to a Refrigerator Plant of 4,000Workers, and now 320 Sun-Catcher Makers.Wall Street Journal (11/29) reports, “When a fast-growing makerof solar equipment broke ground here in 2006 on the first two of what it saidwould eventually be six giant new factories, it seemed the sun was finallyshining on this town’s battered economy. Just months earlier, Sweden’sElectrolux AB had shut its Greenville refrigerator plant, nearly snuffing outwhat had been the town’s marquee industry for more than a century. Countingjobs lost at local Electrolux suppliers and two other smaller factories, thiswestern Michigan town of 8,000 lost some 4,000 jobs almost overnight, andunemployment in Montcalm County soared to nearly 16%. Kenneth Snow, the town’smayor, says attracting the solar plants was a turning point at a dark moment. Butsolar hasn’t taken up the slack many thought it would. The two plants werebuilt, and now employ 320 people between them. The company—United SolarOvonic, known as Uni-Solar, a unit of Energy Conversion Devices Inc. of AuburnHills, Mich.—has indefinitely shelved plans for additional factories inGreenville.”

39% of Massachusetts HeatsTheir Home with Oil, 44% with Nat Gas, Got That? Markey Calls for RecordHeating Assistance Subsidies, Yet Opposes Production of those Fuels. MakeSense?Rep. Markey (12/1) press release, “Representative EdwardJ. Markey (D-Mass.) today led a letter, cosigned by 62 of his colleagues in theHouse of Representatives, calling for funding the Low-Income Home HeatingAssistance Program (LIHEAP) through September 30, 2011 at least at the FY2010levels of $5.1 billion – the highest funding level in the history of theprogram. “During these tough economic times, record numbers of Americanfamilies turn to this program so they don’t have to turn off their thermostats.Cutting funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program this winterwould lead to millions of families being turned away and a dramatic reductionin benefits. This holiday season, we can’t let this important program take afunding holiday from helping people to stay warm. I will continue to fight toensure that Massachusetts families are not left out in the cold this winter asCongress debates funding for home energy assistance later this month.”

“Forty years ago today, theU.S. Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors,” and Waged Battle onAmerican Manufacturing and Energy Production. EPA Admin. Lisa Jackson (12/2) writes for the Wall Street Journal, “Forty years ago today, the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors, beginning a history ofimprovements to our health and environment. We reach this milestone exactly onemonth after the midterm elections strengthened the influence of groups andindividuals who threaten to roll back the EPA’s efforts. Last month’s electionswere not a vote for dirtier air or more pollution in our water. No one was sentto Congress with a mandate to increase health threats to our children… Special interests have spent millionsof dollars making the case that we must choose the economy or the environment,attacking everything from removing lead in gasoline to cleaning up acid rain.They have consistently exaggerated the cost and scope of EPA actions, and in 40years their predictions have not come true. These attacks are aimed at the EPA,but their impacts are felt by all Americans. Pollutants like mercury, smog andsoot are neurotoxins and killers that cause developmental problems and asthmain kids, and heart attacks in adults. We will not strengthen our economy byexposing our communities and our workers to more pollution. In thesepolitically charged times, we urge Congress and the American people to focus onresults from common-sense policies, not inaccurate doomsday speculations. Thatis how we can confront our nation’s economic and environmental challenges andlay a foundation for the next 40 years and beyond.

Why the “E” needs to be Removed from E&C: UptonFirst Order of Business, Healthcare; Sterns, the deficit; Barton,Bipartisanship; Shimkus, Who Knows, He Didn’t Speak to Reporters.Politico (11/30) reports, “Upton,Barton and Reps. John Shimkus and Cliff Stearns all made their presentations tothe GOP Steering Committee Tuesday. The panel, loaded with loyalists toincoming Speaker John Boehner, is expected to make its decision by nextTuesday. After being asked about his pro-life position by a member of thesteering committee, Upton said the first item on the committee’s agenda underhis leadership would be to codify a plan from Reps. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) and BartStupak (D-Mich.) that would ban federal funds for abortions except in the caseof rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Barton,who appeared first before the steering panel, told reporters afterward thatUpton isn’t ready to be chairman. “I think that I am more conservative and Ithink that Fred is well qualified at some point in time to chair thiscommittee, but not right now,” he said… I have the respect on both sides of theaisle and on both sides of the Capitol.” Stearns – who has owned a smallchain of hotels and restaurants – is seen as a long-shot candidate, butwas confident about his chances after appearing before the committee. “Andsince the election was about jobs and about the deficit, I explained to themhow I fulfilled the American dream and was able to create jobs through hotelsand restaurants.” Shimkus was less chatty than his competitors after hispresentation. “I’m no surprise as far as who I am, what I’ve done,” he toldreporters. “It’s over, so we’ll see. I don’t really have much to say.”

16. That’s the Number ofPermits Issued since the BP-Blowout; Interior Says “Ain’t our Fault.” Folks,this is what we Call the Permitorium. CNN Money (11/30) reports, “Drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico willremain light in the years ahead, despite the fact that the ban on drillingthere has been lifted, according to a survey of oil executives releasedTuesday. Nearly 70% of industry executives expect drilling activity in the Gulfto remain below 2009 levels until at least 2012, according to a survey by BDO,a Chicago-based accounting and consulting firm. Some say it will never returnto 2009 levels. "One message came through loud and clear in this year’ssurvey — that legislative changes represent the biggest threat to growth inthe oil and gas industry," said Charles Dewhurst, who heads BDO’s naturalresources group. The U.S. imposed a moratorium on new drilling activity shortlyafter the BP disaster in April. But since the ban was fully lifted in October,very few new permits for drilling in the region have been issued. Just 16permits for new wells have been issued since the ban on shallow water drillingwas lifted in June and the deepwater ban was lifted in October, according tothe Interior Department. In 2009, a total of 171 permits were issued. Thegovernment says the drop in permits is not entirely its fault. A spokeswomanfor the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said theagency has only received two requests for deepwater wells since the ban waslifted. She said the agency has approved the vast majority of the requests ithas received to drill in shallow water since June. Daniel Kish, a policyspecialist at the American EnergyAlliance, said oil and gas companies are holding off on requesting newdrilling permits until the government finalizes the regulations that apply todeep water drilling. "The problem is that no one knows what the changeswill be," he said. Requesting a new permit "is a difficult thing tojustify economically if you think the regulations are going to change."

SalazarCalls for Disclosure of HF Fluids; May Want to Visit Pa. DEP’s Website or Halliburton or Range Resources, to Name a Few. Associated Press (11/30) reports, “The Obama administrationmay require companies drilling for natural gas on public lands to disclose thechemicals being used in a technique called hydraulic fracturing. Officials areweighing the policy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, calling hydraulicfracturing "a hot and very difficult issue" on public and privatelands. Also known as "fracking," the process involves pumpingmillions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to forceopen channels so natural gas will flow. "As the nation’s largest landmanager, the Department of the Interior has a responsibility to ensure thatnatural gas is developed in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner andprotects the other valuable resources on those lands, including preventing harmto the air, water and species that call these lands home," Salazar saidTuesday at a forum he hosted on the issue. He said officials have yet to settleon a policy. Onshore gas wells on Interior-managed lands account for 11 percentof the nation’s natural gas supply. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency isstudying whether the drilling practice affects drinking water and the publichealth. The EPA has subpoenaed energy giant Halliburton, seeking disclosure ofchemicals used in their fracking fluids. Eight other drilling companies haveprovided that information to the EPA or promised to do so. Drilling companieshave resisted attempts to disclose publicly the chemicals in their frackingfluids, claiming proprietary information. The forum hosted by Salazar includedpanel discussions among federal officials, energy companies and environmentalgroups.”

By Targeting one Tool at aTime, Enviro Groups Aim to Empty the Affordable Energy Toolbox; Halt the use ofFossil Energy. E&E News (sub req’d, 11/30) reports, “Critics of thenew wave of gas drilling have focused too much on one process — hydraulicfracturing — when other aspects of drilling are proved to have caused moreproblems, an Environmental Defense Fund official said today. "If peopleover-emphasize hydraulic fracturing as a risk, they are doing industry afavor," Scott Anderson, senior policy adviser for EDF, said after a forumon fracturing at the Heritage Foundation. "They’re shortchanging attentionthat could be focused on practices that cause the bulk of the problem." Andersonsaid many people equate hydraulic fracturing with shale gas development ingeneral. But most of the documented problems with shale gas production, hesaid, have been spills of fracturing fluid, flowback or other toxic substances.Methane leaking into water supplies is also a widespread problem. Lee Fuller,vice president of government relations for the Independent PetroleumAssociation of America, said the debate isn’t about drilling safety, but thefuture of natural gas and other fossil fuels. "We tend to see the debatenot as about chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, but as a war over thefuture of fossil energy," Fuller said. "There’s a great number ofmembers of the environmental community who have as their charter theelimination of fossil fuel." Hydraulic fracturing suits environmentalgroups’ purposes, he said, because it’s not federally regulated while spillsand other processes are regulated. Once fracturing fades or gets resolved, hesaid, environmentalists will simply come up with a new way to eliminate fossilfuel use. "It will not end thatagenda," Fuller said. "They simply will move on to the nextbattle."

Corporate Welfare at itsWorst: Taxpayers to Fork Over $31 BILLION in Ethanol Handouts Over the NextFive Years. E&E News (sub req’d, 11/30) reports, A bipartisangroup of 17 senators is urging their chamber’s leadership to drop ethanol taxcredits and protective tariffs, projecting that the current subsidies, ifextended, would cost the Treasury $31 billion over the next five years. "Wecannot afford to pay industry for following the law," the letter argues,in reference to ethanol blending requirements under the federal renewable fuelstandard. "Eliminating or reducing the ethanol tariff would diversify ourfuel supply, replace oil imports from [the Organization of Petroleum ExportingCountries] with ethanol from our allies and expand our trade relationships withdemocratic states." Citing Congressional Budget Office analyses that showthe tax credit costs taxpayers $1.78 per gallon of gasoline consumption reducedand amounts to a $750-per-metric-ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions, theletter says the costs of the two measures outweigh the benefits. Led by Sens.Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the letter puts thesignatories — all from outside of the Farm Belt — on the record in favor ofletting the 45-cent-per-gallon ethanol blending subsidy and the54-cent-per-gallon imported ethanol tariff expire.”

Coal, Rare Earths, Oil,Natural Gas – You Name it, China is Importing It. Coal Imports Surge 45%over Four Years.Investor’s Business Daily (12/1/10) reports, “Whether a company isbased in Minneapolis or Mumbai, it’s clear that emerging markets are providingnew demand for coal, metals, oil and grains. And chief among the biggest newbuyers of these raw materials is China. Consider coal. China was the No. 1producer in 2009, providing half the world’s output, according to the EnergyDepartment. But it also was the world’s biggest coal consumer. Over the fouryears through 2009, the latest data available from the DOE, China’s usagesurged 45%. In the U.S., the second-biggest coal burner, usage fell 11% in thattime frame. More to the point, China’s demand growth outstrips its outputgrowth, which the DOE puts at 34% in that four-year stretch. So China’s coalimports have been growing at a breathtaking pace. China imported 151 millionshort tons of coal in 2009. That’s 240% more than the 2008 figure and 423% morethan the 2005 figure. China is the world’s biggest producer and importer ofcoal. The emerging behemoth also is the big name in the copper industry. Chinaimports about one-third of world production, says Bill O’Neill, a partner atLogic Advisors, a commodity consultancy, broker and money manager. The story ismuch the same in other base metals and, to some degree, oil. Booming demand andstrategic stockpiling are the magnets luring huge shipments to China fromproducers around the world. In this way, the China story can’t help but impactU.S. companies. Coal miners are thriving.”

Sound Familiar? Chu aimsfor 50% Renewable by 2050; Carter Called for 20% Solar by 2000, 30years ago. Platts (11/30) reports, “US Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesdaysaid he would like to see the country generate at least 20% of its electricityfrom renewable sources by 2020, and 50% or more by 2050. "And as time goeson, we get better and better at this and we can get [renewable generation]cheaper than fossil fuels, it’ll really take off," Chu said during awide-ranging live video chat on www.whitehouse.gov. "Certainly there’snothing in the laws of physics that say, by the mid to end of the century, wecan’t mostly be relying on renewable energy." But to do so will requirestates to enact robust renewable energy standards, as well as federal policiesthat guide the country towards clean energy, he said. Industry will also haveto find a way for renewable generation to be cheaper than electricity generatedfrom fossil fuels, so that such technologies will no longer require subsidies,he said. "Going into the future, we have to be able to say wind or solaror other renewables are going to be cheaper than gas, cheaper than coal,"Chu said.”

Beach Scopes: Lisa JacksonKickin’ It in Cancun This Week, Laments that Carbon “Pollution” Isn’t “Easy toPhotograph,” and Is Thus “Less Easy to Get People Riled Up About.” EnergyGuardian (11/30, subs.req’d) reports, “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jacksonsuggested in a speech Monday that congressional opposition and voter apathy tocapping greenhouse gas emissions was the outcome of her agency’s 40 yearsuccess in regulating pollution. “We’ve gotten to the point now where we don’tsee the pollution as often as we did, and in some ways, that makes our job alittle bit harder. It’s pollution that’s less easy to photograph and less easyto get people riled up about.” It’s a line unlikely to inspire confidence atCancun, especially with lingering questions about whether Congress can musterenough votes to block EPA from regulating large source emitters in 2011.Jackson even suggested in a Newsweek interview she might be open to delayingthe regulations. “I’m not saying there’s no accommodation that can be made withrespect to time,” she said. Energy Secretary Steven Chu sought to steer theclimate debate away from greenhouse gas emissions all together, suggesting inhis own speech Monday that the real reason to act was that China could beat theUnited States in a Sputnik-like race for clean energy technology and possiblyunseat America’s economic superiority. To developing countries being asked tocut greenhouse gases, the race for economic superiority is a low priority.

Shallow Thinking: BOEMRE’sContinued Inaction in Executing Basic Responsibilities on Shallow Water PermitsReally Starting to Irk Both Rs and Ds in Congress.Houston Chronicle (11/29) reports, “Gulf State lawmakers onMonday pressed federal regulators to speed up approvals for new offshoredrilling projects amid what they said was an economically devastating slowdownin well permits. A dozen members of Congress made their case in a closed-doormeeting with Michael Bromwich, the head of the Bureau of Ocean EnergyManagement, Regulation and Enforcement. Although the Obama administration liftedits moratorium on deep-water drilling in October, the government has yet tosign off on any new offshore project that would have been blocked by the ban.And fewer shallow-water permits are being sought or approved by the oceanenergy bureau than before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion triggered the oilspill in the Gulf of Mexico and a swath of new offshore drilling requirements.Bromwich has insisted his bureau is moving as “expeditiously” as possible tovet new drilling applications without compromising safety and has reassignedroughly 20 employees from other divisions of the ocean energy bureau to helpwith the permitting logjam. After a meeting with offshore drilling contractorson Nov. 22, Bromwich noted that his agency “has been in frequent communicationwith representatives from the oil and gas industry.” But Gulf Coast lawmakerssaid those overtures have fallen short and told Bromwich that he needs to do abetter job explaining the new rules to oil and gas producers.

That’s a Relief: Steven ChuSays Obama’s Freeze in Salaries for Federal Bureaucrats Won’t Affect theBillions He’s Spending to Prop Up Unreliable Energy.The Hill (11/29) reports, “Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a simplereason why President Obama’s proposed federal pay freeze would not hinder DOE’spush to develop next-wave energy technologies. Chu said Monday that DOE alreadyattracts talent that’s willing to take big pay cuts to work for the agency. “Interms of the ability to attract quality people to the DOE, surprisingly, anumber of people have been willing to take cuts in pay” by a factor of two orfour or even 10, Chu said in remarks at the National Press Club. “They feel itis that important.” He pointed to Arun Majumdar, who directs DOE’s AdvancedResearch Projects Agency — Energy, which is aimed to cultivatinghigh-risk, high-reward research into technologies that curb reliance on foreignenergy and lower greenhouse-gas emissions. Before coming to DOE a year ago,Majumdar was an engineering professor at the University of California-Berkeleyand associate laboratory director for energy and environment at LawrenceBerkeley National Laboratory (the lab Chu ran before coming to DOE). “It istough and you have to be, kind of, a little bit crazy and a whole lotpatriotic,” Chu said.

Here’s How You Know It’sTime to End the Ethanol Subsidies: When the Tea Party and Friends of the EarthGet Together on a Letter and Demand It.The Hill (11/29) reports, “A grab-bag of groups from across thepolitical spectrum are pushing Senate leaders to let a major ethanol tax breakexpire at year’s end. Friends of the Earth, FreedomWorks, Taxpayers for CommonSense and food industry trade groups made their case in a letter Monday toSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky.). The tax credit for ethanol blenders helps boost the market for thecorn-based fuel, but the groups call it wasteful and pointless. “Congress hasthe opportunity to end the $6 billion a year subsidy to gasoline refiners who blendcorn ethanol into gasoline. At a time of spiraling deficits, we do not believeCongress should continue subsidizing gasoline refiners for something that theyare already required to do by the Renewable Fuels Standard,” the letter states.The Renewable Fuels Standard is the federal program created in a 2005 energylaw and expanded in a 2007 energy bill that requires increasing volumes ofethanol and other renewable fuels in the nation’s gasoline supply. “Experts like the Congressional Budget Officeand the Government Accountability Office have concluded that the subsidy is nolonger necessary, and leading economists agree that ending it would have littleimpact on ethanol production, prices or jobs,” the letter continues.

Mining of Phosphate HasHelped Florida Create Thousands of Jobs in Fertilizer Industry, Helped FarmersGrow Crops All Around the World – Which Is Precisely Why Sierra ClubWants It to Stop.Wall Street Journal (11/30) reports, “The phosphate mined formore than a century here in central Florida to make fertilizer has yieldedthousands of jobs and countless harvests around the world. But environmentalgroups are arguing in federal court that the cornucopia extracts too high aprice in lost wetlands, spoiled water supplies and ruined farmland. The SierraClub and local environmentalists have slammed the brakes on an 11,000-acre mineextension planned by industry giant Mosaic Co. after securing a courtinjunction in July—the first such ruling in a state that suppliesapproximately 70% of U.S. phosphate rock for fertilizer. Mosaic is appealingthe ruling. At the same time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to beginan environmental review early next year to determine the cumulative impact ofphosphate mining in this region—the first such study in Florida since1978. The hurdles are threatening jobs in a local economy that is strugglingto emerge from recession. Phosphate mining directly employs about 4,000 peoplein four Florida counties, generating an estimated 20% of the world’s phosphatefertilizer. In Hardee County, where Mosaic’s mine extension is located, theunemployment rate has more than doubled to 15% since 2007. On the main streetof Wauchula, the county seat, about half the store fronts are vacant. "Iwould hate to see anything happen that prohibits mining," said TerryAtchley, chairman of the county’s board of commissioners.

Clowns in NY LegislatureBad Enough in the Middle of the Day – Let ‘Em Vote on Things At Midnight,And They Pass Moratorium Bills Targeting Hydraulic Fracturing. Ithaca Journal (11/30) reports, “The Assembly approved atemporary moratorium on natural gas drilling Monday night, with the goal ofplacing a hold on hydraulic fracturing until May. The bill passed, 93-43,according to the unofficial tally. Assemblyman Robert Castelli, R-GoldensBridge, Westchester County, said the measure would help protect water qualityacross the state."Our environment should not be reducing the protection ofthe environment to the level of a political football," Castelli said.Though the moratorium was not on the agenda set by Paterson, AssemblywomanBarbara Lifton, D-Ithaca, said Sunday she was hopeful a vote would be taken onthe legislation. Because the bill was not on Paterson’s agenda, the Assemblyhad to gavel into a "regular" session in order to take up additionalitems, Lifton said."I’m pushing for a regular session so that we can bringboth the moratorium bill up and a stronger moratorium bill up," she said.Other lawmakers said the moratorium would hurt property owners in his district."There are a lot of small farmers, small landowners who are going to behurt by this," said Assemblyman James Bacalles, R-Corning, Steuben County.Actor Mark Ruffalo, a Sullivan County resident and an anti-drilling advocate,also released a statement through the Working Families Party, pushing for theAssembly to pass the bill and urging New Yorkers to sign a petition in favor ofthe moratorium.

Funny Thing About ShaleGas: The More of It We Produce, the More Rapid the Decline of Folks’ NaturalGas and Utility Bills – Even In Areas We Don’t Drill. Philadelphia Inquirer (11/29) reports, “Just in time for thewinter heating season, Philadelphia Gas Works announced Monday it will decreasenatural gas rates for the next three months, saving the average residentialheating customer about $14.69 per month. The municipal gas utility will lowerits residential gas-supply charge from $1.60 per hundred cubic feet to $1.50 onWednesday. The charge for commercial and institutional customers will also bereduced. The supply charge is adjusted quarterly to reflect changes in thewholesale market price of natural gas, which is depressed because of therecession and abundant supplies from new resources such as shale-gas. Basedupon current market projections, the company anticipates that its rates shouldremain stable through the spring.

If You Read Only OneArticle This Week, Make It This: Thousands of Folks Who Returned to School toLearn How to Do “Green Jobs” Find Themselves Without Work Because Of It.Washington Post (11/23) reports, “Anton has been out ofwork since 2008, when his job as a surveyor vanished with Florida’s once-sizzlinghousing market. After a futile search, at age 56 he reluctantly returned toschool to learn the kind of job skills the Obama administration is wageringwill soon fuel an employment boom: solar installation, sustainable landscapedesign, recycling and green demolition. Anton said the classes, funded with a$2.9 million federal grant to Ocala’s workforce development organization, havetaught him a lot. He’s learned how to apply Ohm’s law, how to solder tinycomponents on circuit boards and how to disassemble rather than demolish abuilding. The only problem is that his new skills have not resulted in a singlejob offer. Officials who run Ocala’s green jobs training program say the sameis true for three-quarters of their first 100 graduates. "I think I haveput in 200 applications," said Anton, who exhausted his unemploymentbenefits months ago and now relies on food stamps and his dwindling savings tosurvive. "I’m long past the point where I need some regular income."The industry’s growth has been undercut by the simple economic fact that fossilfuels remain cheaper than renewables. Both Obama administration officials andgreen energy executives say that the business needs not just governmentincentives, but also rules and regulations that force people and business toturn to renewable energy. NAM’s Carter Wood blogs on the WashPost story over atShopFloor.org.

Earlier This Year, BLMFound GHG Emissions from Wellsites Were Picayune – And Certainly Had NoImpact on Climate; Now, Enviros Want BLM To Ignore that Science and Delay NewProject.Associated Press (11/23) reports, “Environmental groups onTuesday sought to cancel the December sale of oil and gas leases beneath morethan 234 square miles of public lands in Montana, North Dakota and SouthDakota. In a formal protest letter sent to the Bureau of Land Management, thethree groups said the agency had not done enough to curb greenhouse gasemissions from oil field activities. Any leases sold in the Dec. 9 sale willnot be issued until the protest is resolved. The three environmental groups— Montana Environmental Information Center, Earthworks and WildEarthGuardians — sued the BLM over the same issue last year. The case wassettled when the BLM pledged environmental reviews on suspended leases totalingmore than 50 square miles. The agency also said it would conduct more detailedreviews on future lease sales. The BLM later determined that greenhouse gasemissions from drilling rigs, compressors and other oil field equipment wereinsignificant and could not be linked directly to climate change. Marc Smithwith the Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade association, defendedthe BLM’s findings on greenhouse gas emissions from oil field activity."The finding of no significant impact speaks for itself," Smith said."It begs the question, what is the greater good? Stopping the Americaneconomy for an impact you can’t measure, or moving ahead with ideas thatimprove overall power sector emissions, create jobs and reduce reliance onforeign oil?"

What Are You Thankful For,Tom Friedman? How About a Nation Called China and the 15.3 Million Short Tonsof Coal It Imported in September – A New World Record.CommodoreResearch projects thefollowing in its most recent China report: “During the last few months, we havebeen writing extensively about robust electricity demand in China. We continueto expect that Chinese coal imports will set records in November and December.China imported 15.3 million tons of coal in September (the vast majority wasthermal coal), an increase of 2.04mt (15%) from 13.26mt imported in August. Ourconservative estimates anticipate that Chinese coal imports will total about16.75mt in November and 17.25mt in December (coal trade figures for Octoberhave not yet been released). In the last few weeks, a very large amount ofvessels have been chartered to import thermal coal to China. China’s currentmonthly coal import record is 16.38mt imported in December 2009. Cold weatherhas enveloped northern provinces across China. A cold front has pushed down to asfar south as Beijing, with low temperatures now hovering at around 1 degreecelsius (33 degrees fahrenheit). Sporadic snowfall also hit much of northernChina over the weekend, forcing the closure of some highways and airports. Coldweather and winter conditions are likely to persist. Thermal coal demand willremain robust.

Markey Embarrassed YetAgain: New Report Shows that Dispersants in the Gulf Broke Up Double the Amountof Oil Than Was Previously Estimated, Saving Lots of Birds.Houston Chronicle (11/23) reports, “Chemical dispersantsappear to have done a better job that originally expected in breaking up oilspilled from the Deepwater Horizon accident this past summer, according to apeer-reviewed report on a previously released “oil budget”. It’s estimated thatabout 16 percent of the approximately 4.9 million gallons of oil were dispersedby chemicals either sprayed into the oil on the surface or as it streamed fromthe well 5,000 feet below, according to the report from the Federal InteragencySolutions Group. That’s up from an estimate of 8 percent that was in theoriginal oil budget released on Aug. 4. The percentage of the oil dispersednaturally was estimated to be about 13 percent (down 3 percent from original)and the amount that evaporated or dissovled estimated at 23 percent (down 2percent). The report estimates about 23 percent of the total oil spill remainsunaccounted for, down about 3 percent from the original report. NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco said the relativelyclose proximity of the original numbers and Tuesday’s report serves as“validation of the original numbers.”

Wolverine: Rep. Upton FiresOff Long Letter to Sec. Chu with Questions About How His Agency Doled OutStimulus Cash – And Where It’s Hiding the Billions Never Spent. E&E News(11/23, subs. req’d) reports, “Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the leading contenderin a four-way race for the chairmanship of the powerful committee, today pushedEnergy Secretary Steven Chu to explain the agency’s decisions in doling out its$40 billion portion of the $800 billion stimulus bill. "The Obamaadministration and congressional Democrats narrowly passed a $862 billionstimulus package … in February of 2009 on the promise that money would go outthe door immediately to shovel-ready projects and that the unemployment ratewould stay below 8 percent," Upton wrote today in a letter to Chu."It is clear that the president’s economic team was wrong aboutunemployment staying below 8 percent. It is also now clear that the presidentwas incorrect in his assertion that money would go out the door immediately toshovel-ready projects." Upton goes on to question Chu about the status ofthe funding, the number of jobs created and the premise of doling out the fundsto "shovel ready" projects. DOE has been heavily criticized for notspending stimulus funds fast enough, and some congressional critics, includingUpton, have vowed to seize unspent funding. Upton’s letter is the latest in astring of actions he has taken to boost his conservative credentials as hejockeys for the top spot on the committee in the next Congress.

Interior Announces MajorNew Campaign to Break the Gridlock and Finally Issue Much-Needed Permits forOffshore Energy – Just Not for Oil and Gas.E&E News(11/23, subs. req’d) reports, “The Interior Department will announce a programtoday for fast-tracking the permits of offshore wind projects by identifyingpromising areas along the mid-Atlantic Coast and marshaling the resources of an11-state offshore wind consortium. The announcement scheduled for thisafternoon at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry will include a suite of proposals for"speeding up, expediting and facilitating the process of siting offshorewind energy on the outer continental shelf," Interior spokesman FrankQuimby said. At an offshore wind conference in Atlantic City, N.J., last month,Interior Secretary Ken Salazar hinted that his department would pursue aprogrammatic environmental review of offshore wind potential in the Atlanticsimilar to the Bureau of Land Management’s study of solar resources on federallands in the Southwest. BLM last year said it would conduct front-endenvironmental reviews of sun-drenched federal lands to encourage developmentwhere resource potential is high, environmental impacts are low andtransmission access is available (Land Letter, July 9, 2009). "If we cando this type of work on the 250 million acres of the Bureau of Land Management,we should be able to do the same on the 1.75 billion acres of our nation’s outercontinental shelf," Salazar said. "I am determined to accomplish asimilar objective of orderly, responsible and straightforward permitting forwind development on the Atlantic outer continental shelf."

Sierra Club Drops the FigLeaf on Coal: “We Don’t Want It Burned At All” – Too Bad the ChineseDon’t Speak Na’vi. NY Times (11/21) reports, “At ports in Canada, Australia, Indonesia,Colombia and South Africa, ships are lining up to load coal for furnaces inChina, which has evolved virtually overnight from a coal exporter to one of theworld’s leading purchasers. The United States now ships coal to China viaCanada, but coal companies are scouting for new loading ports in WashingtonState. New mines are being planned for the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest.Indeed, some of the world’s more environmentally progressive regions arenascent epicenters of the new coal export trade, creating political tensionsbetween business and environmental goals. Traditionally, coal is burned nearwhere it is mined — particularly so-called thermal or steaming coal, usedfor heat and electricity. But in the last few years, long-distanceinternational coal exports have been surging because of China’s gallopingeconomy, which now burns half of the six billion tons of coal used globallyeach year. And the rush to feed this new Asian market has helped double theprice of coal over the past five years, leading to a renaissance of mining andexploration in many parts of the world. “This is a worst-case scenario,” saidDavid Graham-Caso, spokesman for the Sierra Club, which estimates that its“Beyond Coal” campaign has helped to block 139 proposed coal plants in theUnited States over the last few years. “We don’t want this coal burned here,but we don’t want it burned at all. This is undermining everything we’veaccomplished.”

Action Jackson: EPA’sUnilateral Assault on American Economy “Unprecedented” – And FindingItself Less Grounded in the Law by the Day. Wall Street Journal (11/22) editorializes, “The scale of theEPA’s current assault is unprecedented, yet it has received almost no publicscrutiny. Since Mr. Obama took office, the agency has proposed or finalized 29major regulations and 172 major policy rules. This surge already outpaces theClinton Administration’s entire first term—when the EPA had just beenhanded broad new powers under the 1990 revamp of air pollution laws. … A casestudy in the Jackson method is the EPA’s recent tightening of air-qualitystandards for sulfur dioxide. The draft SO2 rule was released for the formalperiod of public comment last December. Yet the final rule published in Junesuddenly included a "preamble" that rewrote 40-odd years of settledEPA policy. EPA has heretofore measured the concentration of pollutants in the ambientair by, well, measuring the concentration of pollutants in the ambient air. Thepreamble throws out this sampling and ultraviolet testing and substitutescomputer estimations of what air quality might be. The EPA favors modelingbecause it can plug in the data and assumptions of its choosing, like how oftena power plant is running at maximum capacity. Gaming the models will allow theagency to punish states and target individual plants, even if actualmeasurements show that SO2 is under the new EPA standard.

Dog and Phony Show: SalazarOn Hand in New Orleans Today to Talk About How Much He Loves the O&GIndustry – Notwithstanding the Permitorium that Remains In Place.The Hill (11/22) reports, “Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will meetMonday with oil industry officials in Louisiana to talk about offshore drillingpermits. The session is part of the deal that ended Sen. Mary Landrieu’s(D-La.) months-long obstruction of Jacob Lew’s confirmation as White Housebudget director. The department has promised a closed-door “informaldiscussion” with Salazar “to discuss the challenges affecting the offshore oiland gas industry and to hear the Secretary’s path forward to issuing permitsand getting this vital industry back to work,” according to Interior’sinvitation. Industry sources believe Salazar may announce the processing ofsome shallow-water drilling permits, and perhaps a nebulous roadmap fordeepwater projects. Oil-and-gas companies bashed the deepwater drilling freezeimposed after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, and have also criticized aslowdown in permits for shallow-water projects that were not covered by theformal ban. While the department lifted the official deepwater ban in October,industry critics claim a de facto freeze remains for both deepwater andshallow-water projects. Interior has imposed a suite of new rig safety mandatesin recent months, but says it wants to work with industry to get permitsrolling under the beefed-up standards.

Number of Senators DemandingPermanent Lock-Down of Alaska’s Coastal Plan Continues to Dwindle – ButBegich and Murkowski Aren’t About to Let ‘Em Off the Hook.EnergyGuardian (11/23, subs.req’d) reports, “Alaska lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Mark Begich, vowedto oppose any move by President Barack Obama to add new wilderness protectionsto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A group of 25 senators, including Sen.Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and 24 Democrats, Friday called on Obama to use the50th anniversary of the refuge, on Dec. 6, to “grant the Arctic Refuge thestrong protections it deserves.” They noted that more than 100 million acresoutside ANWR have been made available for exploration. “Now is the time to findbalance in managing our public lands,” they said. Begich and Alaska Sen. LisaMurkowski, a Republican, urged that the appeal be ignored. “This is anothermisguided attempt to lock up ANWR by Sen. Lieberman and others who truly don’tunderstand its potential to help bring national and economic security to ourcountry,” Begich said. Begich and Murkowski support directional drilling, whichthey say can safely extract oil and gas from the 1.5 million coastal acres inthe ANWR that are not already off-limits. Exploration on the coastal acres issubject to congressional approval. “We should be discussing how to make thathappen, and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, rather than writingmore letters that paint ANWR as this last bastion of wilderness,” Begich said. “The letter from my Senate colleagues offers no alternatives to ANWR’sresources, only more of the same old arguments about why America’s resourcesshould never be developed,” Murkowski said.

Your Government At Work: 6Months Removed from Federal Approval of Cape Wind Project, Folks Up in Mass.Still Can’t Get Any Permits from EPA, Interior. Boston Globe (11/20) reports, “The developers of theproposed Nantucket Sound wind farm said yesterday that they would not meet adeadline to qualify for a 30 percent federal cash grant for the project.However, it is not clear if the cost of Cape Wind’s electricity will rise,because the project could receive numerous other federal financial incentives.The price of electric power from Cape Wind, which would amount to roughly 2percent of electric bills for National Grid customers in Massachusetts, hasbecome one of the biggest controversies of the project. Cape Wind developershad asked the state Department of Public Utilities to rule by Nov. 15 on aproposed contract between the wind farm and National Grid for the utility topurchase 50 percent of the project’s electricity. They sought the rulingbecause they wanted to start construction by the end of this year, arequirement to receive the federal grant that is possibly worth hundreds ofmillions of dollars. That DPU decision has been delayed to at least Monday, buta Cape Wind official said last night that the main reasons for the misseddeadline were outstanding permits from the US Environmental Protection Agencyand the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Ethanol Fuel Mandate Uppedto 15%? No Problem, Says EPA – Totally Safe for Your Car, Unless YouHappen to Drive Anything Built Between 2001 and 2006. The Hill (11/19) reports, “EPA is delaying a decision likely untilearly next year on whether a higher ethanol blend is appropriate for vehiclesin model years 2001 through 2006 in order to conduct more federal testing. TheEnergy Department "has informed EPA that lab testing of E15 in model year2001-2006 vehicles will now be completed by the end of December. EPA will makeits decision shortly after receiving that data," according to an EPAstatement to E2. The EnergyDepartment was initially expected to complete testing by this month on whetherE15 — a fuel blend comprised of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percentethanol — was safe for vehicles in model years 2001 through 2006. EPA inOctober announced that E15 was safe to use in engines in model year 2007 andnewer cars, light trucks and sport-utility vehicles. That decision —strongly supported by ethanol advocates — has been challenged in court byfood, farm and oil industry groups, charging that the decision violated theClean Air Act. Additional groups — including petroleum refiners —may challenge that decision as well. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said thereason for the delay in EPA’s decision is because of the need to continuetesting “one particular car that hadn’t been properly maintained and serviced.”

Return to Sender: FourYears Ago, Richard Branson Offered $25 Million to Anyone with a Cool Way toHandle CO2; Needless to Say, That Check Won’t Be Written.NY Times (11/21) reports, “An initiative from Richard Branson, theshaggy-haired billionaire owner of Virgin Atlantic airlines, was emblematic. InFebruary 2007, he offered a cash prize of $25 million to anyone who could comeup within just a few years with a process that would suck large amounts ofgreenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Flanked by Al Gore, the former U.S.vice president and the author of the book “An Inconvenient Truth,” Mr. Bransonlikened his offer to an 18th century competition for a method of estimatinglongitude accurately that eventually saved thousands of lives at seas. “Mancreated the problem, therefore man should solve the problem,” said Mr. Branson,who was referring to global warming. His initiative to help ensure thestability of the climate was “the largest ever science and technology prize tobe offered in history,” Mr. Branson said. Nearly four years later, Mr.Branson’s plans to award that prize, known as the Virgin Earth Challenge, areeffectively on hold. One problem is that some of the most promising ideasamong the approximately 2,500 applications submitted for the award proposedprojects raising tricky environmental and social issues.

Land Men: Senate EPW DemsUnveil Ambitious Agenda for Lame Duck Session – Mostly Involving ForcedAcquisition of Millions of Acres of Currently State and Private Land. E&E News(11/19, subs. req’d) reports, “Lawmakers are working to bundle a slew ofwaterways, public lands and wildlife bills into a monumental natural resourcespackage that could attract enough bipartisan support to pass before Congressends next month. Success is far from assured, aides say, given the lame-ducksession’s already-crowded agenda. Staffers and environmental lobbyists areworking down a list of possible measures, reaching out to Senate offices andcounting votes to determine which individual bills could attract the supportneeded to pass the potentially landmark package. "We’d love to try to doit," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who leads the SenateEnvironment and Public Works Committee, regarding the water, lands and wildlifepackage in the works. Boxer declined to speculate on the chances of such a billpassing both chambers before the clock runs out in December, warning that"one person can hold it up." Bills under consideration for theend-of-year buzzer shot include water and wildlife measures out of Boxer’scommittee that would protect the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound, LongIsland Sound, Gulf of Mexico and San Francisco Bay. Aides are trying to combinethose bills with others out of the Senate Energy and Natural ResourcesCommittee that would protect more than 2 million acres and create new nationalparks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries.

Suggested Compromise onJurisdictional Battle: E&C Can Keep Its Energy Portfolio So Long As ItRemains Focused on Light-Bulbs, and Resources Can Take What’s Left –How’s That? National Journal (11/18) reports, “Washington RepublicanRep. Doc Hastings, the presumed incoming chairman of the House NaturalResources Committee, launched a formal bid today to break up the House Energyand Commerce committee—one of the oldest and most powerful panels inCongress—and to consolidate the “energy” jurisdiction on his panel. “This bold change advance our Republican all-of-the-above approach to energy,level the power of Committees and create more opportunities for more Members,”Hastings wrote in a letter to the Republican Conference. Thomas Pyle, presidentof the Institute for Energy Research,wrote a blog post proposing the jurisdictional switch. “Thesimple truth is that the energy portfolio belongs in the House Committee onNatural Resources,” he wrote. ”That committee already has jurisdiction overoffshore energy production, coal production, water quality, some natural gasproduction, and shares jurisdiction on almost every other energy issue with Energyand Commerce. Unlike Energy and Commerce, however, the Natural Resourcescommittee has a clear and defined focus—how to effectively manage thevast resources of the United States. It does not concern itself withtelecommunications policy, or consumer safety, or health care.” Chris Tucker,vice president at Financial Dynamics and former staffer to GOP leadership, andto a member of Resources Committee, wrote in an e-mail to National Journal, “Ithink it’s a good idea, and probably one whose time has finally come.

Pyle Driver: IER the FirstGroup in Town to Publicly Proffer Plan for Resources to Claim What’s RightfullyTheirs – New IER Blog Post Lays Out Plan to Get There. IER president Tom Pyle writes (11/18) onthe IER blog, “It is a widely reported fable in Washington that the formerChairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell (D-MI), hunga portrait of the Earth in one of his committee rooms so he could point to itwhen asked about his committee’s jurisdiction. Like Babe Ruth and the famouscalled shot, only Dingell knows the truth about this piece of Washingtonfolklore. But what cannot be denied is the wide-ranging set of policy issuesthat emanates from this powerful House committee. The Energy and CommerceCommittee’s jurisdiction is practically limitless. Energy, environment, healthcare, interstate and foreign commerce, consumer protection, biomedical researchand development, communication and communication technology, travel andtourism, and even “sports related matters” all fall under the purview of thisunwieldy body. Telecommunications has received very little attention these pasttwo years given the current Chairman, Henry Waxman (D-CA) was busy brokeringdeal upon deal to deliver Obamacare and the cap-and-trade national energy taxto Speaker Pelosi. As a result, the many federal laws governing the rapidlychanging telecommunications industry have fallen far behind the realities ofthe marketplace. Now that the obituary has finally been written oncap-and-trade, Congress will literally be starting over in the effort toconstruct a national energy policy that should focus on creating and fosteringreal and sustainable jobs and removing obstacles to affordable domestic energyproduction.

US’s Envoy to the UN SaysThose Who Question Climate, Oppose Cap-and-Raid “Need to Be Dealt With” So ThatHe Can Regain Respect from His Int’l Buddies. Politico’s Morning Enviro-Day-Blotter (11/19) reports, “Congress’s growing ranksof climate skeptics have the rest of the world a little confused, the top U.S.climate negotiator told reporters yesterday in Crystal City. "People fromaround the world look at some of the things that some of the people running forthe Senate and House have said, some of the positions that are taken," and"there is puzzlement," Todd Stern said at the end of a two-daymeeting on climate for the world’s largest economic powers. "Everyone isentitled to their own opinions, but they’re not entitled to their ownfacts," Stern said of the skeptics. "People who want to look at factsand pretend they’re not there are not in the long run going to do us anygood." He also downplayed the perception that there is an army of skepticsin the Capitol. "I don’t think the … climate deniers represent anythinglike a majority, or even a very large minority. But it’s something, there’s noquestion, it’s something that needs to be addressed and dealt with in thiscountry." "I’d describe myself right now as neither an optimist nor apessimist," Stern said when asked about the prospects for the Cancunclimate talks that kick off Nov. 29. "The issues and the differences arevery real. The issues are challenging. I think we can see a way forward, butonly based on what our leaders agreed to last year in the Copenhagen Accord.We’re certainly not going to go back from that."

Landrieu Drops Hold onObama OMB Nominee – But No Before Extracting Promise from Salazar ThatHe’ll Go to New Orleans “And Express Support for the Oil and Gas Industry.”Politico (11/18) reports, “Landrieu said on the Senate floor she wassatisfied the Obama administration had sufficiently lifted its moratorium ondeepwater oil drilling, which she argued was disastrous for the Gulf Coasteconomy. The senator had held up Lew’s nomination as director of the Office ofBudget and Management for the past two months in protest of the drilling ban,which was put in place after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April. "Ifigured it would get their attention and I think it has," Landrieu said. While the moratorium had been lifted in October, Landrieu said as recently asthis week she needed additional assurances from the Obama administration thatthere would be permits issued for deep and shallow water drilling. On Thursday,she said the administration had made progress, issuing six permits in the pasttwo weeks with plans for more. Landrieu said she met with Interior SecretaryKen Salazar three times in the past 24 hours, and that he pledged to travel toLouisiana on Monday to express support for the oil and gas industry. Nominatedby Obama in July, Lew was confirmed by voice vote in the Senate. He had previouslyserved as OMB director in the Clinton administration, and has been credited bythe current administration for helping usher in an era of budget surpluses atthe end of the decade.

API’s Top-Dog EconomistRacking Up the Super 8 Points While Traveling Across the Mid-Atlantic toExplain What’s What on the Marcellus Shale.The Saratogian (11/19) reports, “A federal economist saysNew Yorkers should consider hydraulic fracturing as a way to tap natural gasresources trapped deep underground in the Southern Tier and Finger Lakesregions of the state. John Felmy, a chief economist with the American PetroleumInstitute, which represents oil companies, spoke at a conference Thursday atthe Saratoga Hilton about the potential for hydro-fracking in the MarcellusShale, a rock formation including areas of southern New York and northern andwestern Pennsylvania that holds vast reserves of natural gas. In an interviewprior to the conference, Felmy said a growing population and increasing demandsfor electricity in the U.S. will require the production of more natural gas.Natural gas is used to heat 60 million homes and makes up almost 24 percent ofthe nation’s energy supply, federal statistics show. Renewable energy sourceslike solar and wind constitute 1 percent of the nation’s energy supply andrequire backup generation such as natural gas, Felmy said. In addition, whiledistribution costs for natural gas have spiked, consumers who heat their homeswith oil are still paying twice what natural gas consumers pay. "We’regoing to need this," he said.

Renegade FERC CommissionerProposes New Special Rule Allowing Big Wind, Solar to Buy Transmission in 15Minute Intervals, Instead of Hour-Intervals Like Everyone Else.Reuters (11/18) reports, “Federal regulators on Thursday proposedreforms to make the U.S. electric grid more accessible to electricity generatedby renewable energy sources. FERC proposed a rule requiring public utilitytransmission providers to allow renewable power producers to schedule theirshipments of electricity over shorter time periods to better reflect themoment-to-moment changes in generation output by renewables. Wind and solarpower producers would be able to schedule transmission service in 15-minuteintervals, instead of the current one-hour scheduling procedure. "Most ofthe new power plants for which developers are seeking access to the grid arevariable resources such as wind and solar generators," said FERC ChairmanJon Wellinghoff. "This proposal will help the commission tocost-effectively integrate these and other variable generators into the grid ina way that helps maintain reliability and operational stability." TheFERC’s proposal would help meet the Obama administration’s goal to double theamount of U.S. electricity generated by renewable energy sources. Wellinghoffalso pointed out that the U.S auto and transportation industries are movingtoward electric vehicles that will create new demand for power, and making iteasier to for electricity producers to get on the grid will help meet thatdemand.

Maybe If They Didn’t ThrowSo Many Batteries At Players: The Philadelphia Eagles Wouldn’t Need to Install80 Wind Turbines to Supply the Stadium with Power.NY Times (11/17) reports, “On Thursday, the Philadelphia Eaglesannounced perhaps the most ambitious green initiative yet: the installation ofabout 2,500 solar panels, 80 20-foot-high wind turbines and a generator thatruns on natural gas and biodiesel so that Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’home, will be the first stadium capable of generating all its own electricity.Becoming self-sufficient in energy is the latest in a string of environmentallyfriendly measures the Eagles have taken since they opened their stadium in2003. (Coincidentally, the team’s primary color is green.) Since then, manyteams have introduced similar efficiency programs, and the four major sportsleagues have set up programs to help their teams share information about how touse less energy, reduce waste and save money. As large as they are, sports stadiumsconsume just a sliver of the nation’s energy and produce a fraction of itswaste. But they are seen and used by millions of Americans every day, which hashelped leagues counter the perception that sports teams are wastefulenterprises and in fact can convey socially responsible messages to fans of allpolitical and economic stripes.

This isLeadership: No Offshore Drilling in Michigan, That’s Not Stopping Fred Uptonfrom Leading Charge Against Carol Browner/WH Drilling Ban.The Hill (11/15) reports, “A Michigan Republican seeking to chair theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee is pressing White House energy czar CarolBrowner for information about controversial changes her office made to a MayInterior Department report on offshore drilling safety. In a letter to BrownerMonday, Rep. Fred Upton asked about recent findings by Interior’s inspectorgeneral, who concluded that the White House edits left the impression thatoutside experts consulted on the report had endorsed a six-month ban ondeepwater drilling. They hadn’t. And now Upton – who had already signaledthat Browner is in his crosshairs – wants to know more about therationale for the edits. Interior Department officials are emphasizing theinspector general’s conclusion that they did not intentionally seek to mislead.Upton’s letter asks whether the changes “were made to bolster the case for the moratorium”that Interior imposed in late May and lifted last month. It states: “Was it theintention of you or your staff to misleadingly suggest that the Report’sExecutive Summary had been peer reviewed by experts, when that was not actuallythe case?” The letter also asks about “what prompted these edits and underwhose direction were they made,” and seeks “all written documentationconcerning these changes and their authorization.”

DoubleStandard from Hollywood Hank? “Republicans in the House are going to roll overthe Democrats.” What About That Healthcare and Cap-and-Trade Vote?The Hill (11/15) reports, “Top Energy and Commerce Committee DemocratHenry Waxman Monday said he expects a stalemate on the panel in the nextCongress under Republican rule.“Ihave a sense, and I hope to be disappointed, that the Republicans in the Houseare going to roll over the Democrats on committee and in the House,” said theCalifornia Democrat, who will continue to lead his party on the panel duringthe next two years. “Right now, myexpectations are the Republican leadership will find it hard to reachcompromises in the House because they have a lot of pretty hard-linedRepublicans in their ranks who didn’t come here to compromise.” Waxman said anyGOP attempts to stonewall Democrats in the House will face resistance in atight Democratic majority in the Senate. “They will find that that will not getthem a change in the law because those efforts will be stopped in the Senate,”Waxman told reporters in the Capitol Monday evening. “If we wanted to try towork together in the House, perhaps we could find ways to encourage the Senateto get the votes they’ll need to pass something, and as well to encourage thepresident to sign a bill. But otherwise I can see two years of a lot ofstalemate.”

Must Read:California’s Green Bonanza Could Drive Country off Economic Cliff; IncomingHouse Leadership Only Hope to Stop “Green” Spending Spree. George Gilder (11/16) writes for the Wall Street Journal, “California officials acknowledged lastThursday that the state faces $20 billion deficits every year from now to 2016.At the same time, California’s state Treasurer entered bond markets to sellsome $14 billion in "revenue anticipation notes" over the next twoweeks. Worst of all, economic sanity lost out in what may have been the mostimportant election on Nov. 2—and, no, I’m not talking about thegubernatorial or senate races. This was the California referendum to repealAssembly Bill 32, the so-called Global Warming Solutions Act, which ratchetsthe state’s economy back to 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by 2020. That’s a30% drop followed by a mandated 80% overall drop by 2050. Together with a $500billion public-pension overhang, the new energy cap dooms the state tobankruptcy. The irony is that a century-long trend of advance in conventional"non-renewable" energy—from wood to oil to natural gas andnuclear—has already wrought a roughly 60% drop in carbon emissions perwatt. Thus the long-term California targets might well be achieved globally inthe normal course of technological advance. The obvious next step is aggressiveexploitation of the trillions of cubic feet of low-carbon natural gasdiscovered over the last two years, essentially ending the U.S. energy crisis.A partial solution is a suit by four attorneys general outside of California.They argue that the California law violates the Constitution’s interstatecommerce clause because of the limits it places on electricity generated byout-of-state, coal-fired power plants. But ultimately the new Congress mustact. But Republican leaders such as incoming Speaker John Boehner and MajorityLeader Eric Cantor show dangerous gullibility in the face of environmentalistclaims.”

Hey US CoalProducers, You’ve Gotta Friend in China.Worried About “Peak Coal,” Beijing Capping Domestic Output – Yet StillBuilding a Coal-Fired Plant Each Week.Wall Street Journal (11/16) reports, “The idea of peakoil—the point at which global production reaches its maximum—hasfixated the energy industry for years. Now, China is grappling with a newworry: peak coal. State-run media reported that Beijing is considering cappingdomestic coal output in the 2011-2015 period, partly because officials worryminers are running down reserves too quickly to meet the needs of a rapidlyexpanding economy. "China accounts for around 14% of global coal reservesbut its share of global coal consumption is already over triple that at 47%,which is unsustainable," Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA Asia-PacificMarkets said in a report last month. Imposing a cap would be significant asChina’s mining sector is already finding it hard to keep up with domestic coaldemand, which has grown around 10% annually over the past decade. Its net coalimports exceeded 106 million metric tons in the first nine months of theyear—higher than the level for 2009 as a whole—and state companieshave been aggressively acquiring overseas coal assets to secure long-termsupply. In the three years to September 2010, Chinese companies spent $20.96billion on overseas coal-sector acquisitions, according to Dealogic.”

Eco-Extremists Cheer when a Dam is Torn Down in US;Meanwhile, China’s Looking to Build $10 Billion, 7-Gigawatt Facility, Thousandsof Jobs Over 15 Years.Bloomberg (11/16) reports, “China, Myanmar and Thailand agreed to studya $10 billion hydropower project that would be Southeast Asia’s largest bygeneration capacity, the Chinese government said. The 7-gigawatt project wouldbe built on the Salween River in Myanmar over 15 years, China’s State-ownedAssets Supervision and Administration Commission said in a statement on its websitetoday. Companies from the three countries signed an accord on the project onNov. 10, according to the statement. China, the world’s largest energyconsumer, is planning to add hydropower capacity in its southern provinces suchas Yunnan and help build hydro dams in neighboring countries including Myanmar,Laos and Cambodia to meet demand from the region. China Three Gorges Corp.,Sinohydro Corp. and China Southern Power Grid Co. will work with theElectricity Generating Authority of Thailand and the International Group ofEntrepreneur Co. in Myanmar on the study, according to the statement.”

Cash-StrappedFederal Government May Forgo Offshore Leasing in 2011, Further Hamper GulfCoast Economy, Energy Security.Reuters (11/15) reports, “Next year may be the first time in over fourdecades that the United States does not lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico foroil or gas drilling, because of additional environmental reviews planned by theObama administration, a major oil lobbying group said on Monday. The AmericanPetroleum Institute complained that 2011 could be the first year since 1965without a U.S. government auction in the Gulf, depending on the length of theInterior Department’s environmental review process. Spurred by the BP (BP.L:Quote) oil spill, Interior last week said it plans to complete supplementalenvironmental impact statements for three remaining Gulf lease sales scheduledunder the current five-year program. In the past, additional environmentalreviews have taken up to a year to complete, but API’s Erik Milito said thedepartment needs to move more swiftly to provide companies with certainty. "Companieshave to make decisions as to what they’re going to do with their existingportfolio of leases," Milito told reporters on a conference call."This could impact companies’ decisions." Interior’s Bureau of OceanEnergy Management refused to confirm whether any of the upcoming lease saleswould have to be postponed. "No announcements have been made regarding thenext Gulf of Mexico lease sale," bureau spokesman Nicholas Pardi said.

Shocker:Politico’s Morning Environmentalist Touts Report by “The Institute for PolicyIntegrity at NYU School of Law,” Fails to Mention the Podesta/Soros Ties. Politico (11/16) reports, “Most states are lagging when itcomes to rulemaking procedures that include setting environmental and publichealth standards, according to a new report out today from the Institute forPolicy Integrity at New York University’s School of Law. The study assigns eachof the 50 states a letter grade according to how well their regulatory systemspromote sound and rational decision-making. No state got an A and most were inthe D range. Iowa ranked the highest with a B+. The worst: Alaska, Delaware,the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas all scored aD-. Report will be live later today at http://bit.ly/aOKVUJ.”

Recipe for an Offshore Ban:One Part Delay, One Part Denial, One Part Ennui – Any If All Else Fails,Simply Refuse to Hold Lease Sales. Houston Chronicle (11/12) reports, “Although the Bureau ofOcean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement has not announced any delayin the planned lease sale covering offshore tracts in the central Gulf ofMexico, oil industry lobbyists and analysts said it is unlikely to go forward.Analysts at FBR Capital Markets predicted the March lease sale “is likely to becanceled” as a result of the study and the offshore energy bureau’s workvetting new drilling permits and drafting new safety rules. “The agency facessignificant workload on other offshore regulation, including permitting andpublic comment period requirements,” FBR Capital Markets analysts said. MichaelOlsen, a lawyer with Bracewell & Giuliani who previously spent five yearsworking for the Interior Department, noted that “normally, these things takeseveral months to do.” “It would be pretty tough to get it done in (time),”Olsen added. Bromwich said in an interview Tuesday that an upcoming “filing”would shed light on the future of the sales. But the government may have tippedits hand with its formal announcement of the environmental impact study, whichlays the groundwork for the upcoming sales.

There’s Gotta Be a BetterName Than “ReportGate,” Right? Well, Until We Think of One – U.S. Senate Wantsto Know Why Browner Re-Wrote Report on Offshore Ban. The Hill (11/12) reports, “Several members of the Senate Environmentand Public Works Committee are calling for a hearing on the Interior Departmentinspector general’s findings about White House edits of a controversial reporton offshore drilling safety. The Interior Department’s acting inspector generalthis week said changes by energy czar Carol Browner’s staff to Interior’s lateMay report left the impression that outside experts who reviewed the study hadendorsed a six-month ban on deepwater drilling. They hadn’t.

Ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.), andSens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and David Vitter (R-La.) called on CommitteeChairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to conduct a hearing on the matter.“Under Carol Browner’s watch, politics istrumping science. Congress must investigate the editing of scientific reportsand secret meetings where nothing was put into writing. As the Ranking Memberon the Subcommittee on Oversight, I will demand that hearings be heldimmediately. This ‘Czar’ should be accountable to the people, not the other wayaround,” Barrasso said in a prepared statement Friday.

The senators are among GOP lawmakers on bothsides of the Capitol who are using the report as political ammunition againstthe White House.

Lesley Stahl’s Not ExactlyEdward R. Murrow, Right? But Hey: She Did a Half Decent Job Last NightExplaining Enormous Potential of Shale.CBS News (11/14) reports, "In the last few years, we’ve discoveredthe equivalent of two Saudi Arabias of oil in the form of natural gas in theUnited States. Not one, but two," Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of ChesapeakeEnergy, told "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl. "Wait, wehave twice as much natural gas in this country, is that what you’re saying,than they have oil in Saudi Arabia?" Stahl asked. "I’m trying tovery clearly say exactly that," he replied. There are shale formationsacross large parts of the country, and there is production or exploration inover 30 states. It’s an American energy renaissance. Some 10,000 wells will bedrilled in northwest Louisiana, in some of the poorest communities in thecountry, where impoverished farmers are becoming overnight millionaires as theylease their land for drilling. "I never dreamed of money like this,"C.B. Leatherwood told Stahl. " Leatherwood, a retired oil field worker,got a bundle to drill under his farm: $434,000. His cousin, Mike Smith, alsoprofited: he was paid nearly $2 million. "So what’d you do that day?"Stahl asked Smith. "I sat back and thought about it for a, all day. And Isaid, ‘I’m a millionaire.’ And that didn’t sound right," he replied. Theyactually call them "shaleionaires."

Unfortunately, 60 MinutesDidn’t Get Everything Right – Completely Swung and Miss with Ham-HandedExplanation of HF’s Regulatory History. Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (11/15) reports, “A primetime network newsshow’s look at the pros and cons of the natural gas drilling phenomenon in theUnited States that aired on Sunday left people on both sides of the issuesatisfied with fair coverage but concerned that comments from those who wereinterviewed were misleading or inaccurate. Chris Tucker, of EnergyInDepth.org,an organization that promotes the benefits of natural gas drilling, said thesegment was “fairly balanced,” although the show didn’t get everything right.“I think they did a great job of telling the story of real people, everydaypeople, all across the country whose lives have changed for the better thanksto the development of this clean, American resource,” Tucker said. “They didn’tquite get it right when they attempted to venture into the regulatory historyof hydraulic fracturing. The reality is that fracturing technology is among themost thoroughly regulated procedures that takes place at the wellsite, which isa big reason why it’s been able to compile such a solid record of safety andperformance over the past 60 years of commercial use. ”Travis Windle,representing the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said “having ‘60 Minutes’underscore the enormously positive benefits of this revolution … speaks to howtransformational this development is for our nation.”

Bingaman Would Like to SeeLame Duck Goosed Up for Vote on Expansive Electricity Mandate – But EvenHis Own Spokesman Predicts That Won’t Happen. E&E News(11/15, subs. req’d) reports, “The renewable electricity standard (RES) measure(S. 3813), which was originally included in the broad energy bill that passedout of the Energy Committee last summer on a bipartisan basis, was onceconsidered a shoo-in as part of a Senate climate bill this year. But thosetalks failed, so Bingaman and Kansas GOP Sen. Sam Brownback, who is leaving theSenate at the end of this year to become governor, introduced the RES measureas a stand-alone bill this summer. Since then, they have been working to drumup the 60 votes needed to move it to the floor. So far, 31 additionalco-sponsors have signed on, including three Republicans besides Brownback:Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, John Ensign of Nevada and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.A handful of other senators have said they would support the measure withoutsigning on as co-sponsors. But other Republicans, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham ofSouth Carolina, have floated a clean energy standard bill (S. 20) that wouldextend the mandate to energy sources like nuclear and "clean coal."The measure could draw supporters away from Bingaman and Brownback’s plan,which only allows renewable energy sources under the mandate. Even if Bingamanand Brownback find 60 supporters, politics of the lame-duck legislative sessionmay keep the measure off the floor. "We do know energy does not top theto-do list," Wicker said.

Right, and Bingaman WantsOne More Thing from Lame Duck Too: A Massive Public Land-Grab Bill –“Dozens and Dozens” of Horrible Bills Wrapped Into One.E&E News(11/12, subs. req’d) reports, “Senate Energy and Natural Resources CommitteeChairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is hoping to pass a package of public lands andwilderness bills during the lame-duck session of Congress. Bingaman’s panel hassent more than 60 bills to the floor this session that would create newnational parks, monuments, wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries. Now he’shoping to bundle them into an omnibus measure for Senate passage before the111th Congress adjourns, spokesman Bill Wicker confirmed today. Wicker declinedto release the specific bills included in the draft omnibus, but he said itwould include most of the bills that have been cleared through committee andfew — or none — of the measures that haven’t. The Energy and NaturalResources Committee traditionally approves public lands bills only withunanimous support. "It’s dozens and dozens of bills," Wicker said."Time allowing, [Bingaman] does support it, and it is something he’ll pushfor." Time may not allow for much. The package’s quickest road to passageis by unanimous consent, but there are several voices in the Senate that couldkeep that from happening, Wicker said.

Enviros Horrified that Prop26 Passed in CA – Fear That Securing Two-Thirds of Public’s Support forTax, Fee Increases on Energy Producers Will Be Too Tough.LA Times (11/15) reports, “Proposition 26 reclassifies most regulatoryfees on industry as "taxes" requiring a two-thirds vote in governmentbodies or in public referendums, rather than a simple majority. Approved byvoters 53% to 47% on Nov. 2, it is aimed at multibillion-dollar statewideissues such as a per-barrel severance fee on oil and a cap-and-trade system forgreenhouse gases. It’s also aimed at local ordinances that add fees oncigarettes to pay for trash pickup and on alcohol to fund education and lawenforcement programs. Last week, the American Chemistry Council warned LosAngeles County supervisors that a proposed ordinance banning plastic grocerysacks and imposing a 10-cent fee on paper bags falls under the votingrequirements of Proposition 26. But environmentalists and health advocates saidthe initiative makes it nearly impossible in the current political climate toboost industry fees for cleaning up air, water and toxic waste pollution; forcurbing smoking and alcohol abuse; or for enacting new programs."California just got a lot harder to govern," said Bill Magavern,California director of the Sierra Club. Environmentalists, unions and theDemocratic Party scrambled to raise $6.6 million to fight Proposition 26, butproponents outspent them by 3 to 1. In addition to its fee-to-tax redefinition,Proposition 26 contains a provision imposing a two-thirds vote on"revenue-neutral" tax swaps — a complex legislative maneuverthat balances a tax increase with a tax decrease.

Your Very Own Soccer Star:Solar Companies Benefiting from Subsidies in US Turn Around and Use That Moneyfor Big-Time Endorsement Deals in Europe. NY Times (11/14) reports, “Sprucing up your company profile by hiring apopular soccer player and a former international television celebrity to starin advertisements may be run of the mill marketing for some. For a solarcompany, it may give the edge needed to survive in a fiercely competitive andfast-changing environment. SolarWorld of Germany, a maker of solar modules,throws a lot of resources at building its brand when selling its productsoutside of its domestic market, where television ads have helped it to become amajor market player. After running ads this year with Lukas Podolski — amember of the German national soccer team — the company started acampaign in the United States with an unlikely figure: Larry Hagman —whose fictional character in the television show “Dallas” was the epitome of agreedy, scheming oil tycoon — is singing the praises of green energy forSolarWorld. Such efforts lie at the heart of a bigger battle as SolarWorld,and German peers like Q-Cells, take on fierce international competition. “Thisis one way of fighting back the brutal Asian competition,” said Philipp Bumm, ananalyst at Cheuvreux in Frankfurt. The $39 billion solar industry is noexception to a broad trend in which lower cost Asian rivals eat away at themarket shares of European and U.S. companies that usually operate with higherlabor costs.

Re-Useable Grocery BagsHave Lead In Them, Enviros Scream – Only Answer Left is to Stop GroceryShopping and Retire to Caves – Immediately.NY Times (11/14) reports, “They dangle from the arms of many NewYorkers, a nearly ubiquitous emblem of empathy with the environment: synthetic,reusable grocery bags, another must-have accessory for the socially conscious. But the bags, hot items at upscale markets, may be on the verge of aglacier-size public relations problem: similar bags outside the city have beenfound to contain lead. “They say plastic bags are bad; now they say these arebad. What’s worse?” asked Jen Bluestein, who was walking out of Trader Joe’s onthe Upper West Side with a reusable bag under her arm on Sunday. “Green is atrend and people go with trends,” Ms. Bluestein said. “People get them asfashion statements and they have, like, 50 of them. I don’t think people knowthe real facts.” Reports from around the country have trickled in recentlyabout reusable bags, mostly made in China, that contained potentially unsafelevels of lead. The offending bags were identified at several stores, includingsome CVS pharmacies; the Rochester-based Wegman’s grocery chain recalledthousands of its bags, made of recycled plastic, in September. Concerns haveproliferated so much that Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, senta letter on Sunday to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency toinvestigate the issue.

Advice:Compromise on Energy will Compromise New-Found Republican Majority. E&E News (sub’s req., 11/12)reports, “President Obama and Republicans have repeatedly highlighted energy asan area where compromise and progress can be found over the next two yearsafter the tumultuous and partisan midterm elections. But the prospects for anyprogress will land squarely on the shoulders of a few Democratic and Republicansenators who can successfully negotiate and woo allies from the other party.But who will step up? Who has the political incentive to fill the leading andsupporting roles on energy and environmental policy to overcome the fallbackposition of gridlock? With the House dominated by Republicans, moststakeholders contend the finer art of negotiating smaller bipartisan energybills — or "chunks" — that can pass the Democratic upper chamberand obtain the president’s signature largely lies in the Senate. There are severalsenators primed to fill the starring roles, according to energy andenvironmental lobbyists. Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chairman of the Energyand Natural Resources Committee, and his GOP counterpart on the committee –whoever that turns out to be — are a shoo-in for major roles. Despite passinga bipartisan energy bill out of the committee in 2009, Bingaman largely endedup playing a secondary role this year to Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), JoeLieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) as they led the Senate’sefforts on a climate and energy bill. The bill ultimately fizzled out, alongwith Kerry and Lieberman’s key roles on the issue.”

Big Wind’sResearch Arm, NREL, Out with New Study; Finds That Wind Industry will Create aFew Thousand of Temporary Construction Jobs, a Few Hundred Permanent.Casper Star-Tribune (11/11) reports, “For manyresidents and policymakers in Wyoming, wind energy is the future. But even aswind turbines have gone up around the state, and hundreds of thousands of acresare being eyed for future wind farms, there’s been very little hard data toindicate exactly how much Wyoming can benefit from the nascent industry. Thatis, until now. In a presentation at the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority’squarterly board meeting Tuesday in Cheyenne, Eric Lantz, a policy analyst atthe Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, painted a more detailedpicture about what Wyoming can expect to reap from its wind. Data from otherstates indicates that building Wyoming wind energy projects that total 9,000megawatts of electricity will create about 5,500 full-time-equivalent jobs inthe state in the construction industry alone, he said. However, that just meansthere will be enough paid work hours to equal the hours worked by 5,500full-time employees, he said — only a fraction of that number will bepermanent jobs. Erecting the wind turbines will create about 450 permanentworkers in the state, he said. While the wind energy industry will likely nevergrow to the size of Wyoming’s other energy resource industries — coal,oil and natural gas — it will help to even out the boom-bust cycle thoseother industries suffer from, Anderson said.

The BartonBackfire? Texas Lawmaker Distances Self/Staff from Anti-Upton Campaign. OurTake? We’re Just Glad there is an Interest in Energy, Finally.The Hill (11/11) reports, “Rep. JoeBarton (R-Texas) is denying that he has used opposition research in an effortto undermine a rival in the race for the chairmanship of the Energy andCommerce Committee. Media outlets have reported that Barton helped orchestratean anonymous analysis of Rep. Fred Upton’s (R-Mich.) voting record thatconservative activists are using to argue Upton is too moderate to lead thecommittee. GOP sources have alleged that Barton is behind the effort, but hesays otherwise. “We haven’t done that,” Barton said Thursday. Barton told TheHill that he has had "some summaries" forwarded to him. “But that’sit, I’ve just seen them,” he said. “That’s not anything that I’ve compiled,that’s just out there.” He said that many groups are “looking at therecords" of those contending for top posts on Energy and Commerce andother major committees. “There apparently are lots of conservativeorganizations in the country that are very interested in the new RepublicanCongress and the positions that the Congress is going to take, and part of thatreview apparently is to look at some of the major committees,” he said. “I haveseen some stories about Fred’s voting record and a few about mine, but thevoting records are actually created by the members who do the votes,” Bartonsaid. “It is what it is.”

Sharp Shootin’Manchin Heads to DC, Holds Firm in Opposing Anti-Affordable Energy Policies. E&E News (sub’s req.11/12) reports, “Once you’ve shot a bullet through the climate bill, you can’ttake it back. Democrat Joe Manchin just won a West Virginia Senate seat bypromising to — among other things — block his party’s efforts to passcap-and-trade legislation, including in a now-famous television spot where heliterally shot the bill with a rifle. Now he is headed to Washington and has tofind his place among Democrats without alienating the voters who sent himthere. Manchin, the winner of a special election to replace the late Sen.Robert Byrd (D), will join the Senate for the lame-duck session, and Democratsinsist they have a spot for him. The party contains a broad spectrum ofopinions and that is part of its strength, said Alec Gerlach, a regionalspokesman for the Democratic National Committee. "Democrats don’t cast outother Democrats because of a litmus test," Gerlach said. "Joe Manchinis a Democrat, and he won his race running as a Democrat." On energyissues, Manchin may have dodged a bullet this week when President Obama saidDemocrats would drop their bid for a cap-and-trade bill. But Obama has promised"bite-sized" initiatives to deal with climate change, including arenewable energy standard. Manchin signed into law a renewable energy standardof his own last year as West Virginia’s governor, but it may not be the onethat Washington environmental groups are looking for. The bill called forutilities to get 25 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by2025, but those renewable sources include coalbed methane, waste coal, coalgasification and "tire-derived fuel."

With the Helpof American Taxpayers, Brazil’s Petrobras Making Historic Investment; $224Billion Over Next 5 Years. Bloomberg (11/12) reports,“Petrobras is investing $224 billion in the five years through 2014 to boostoutput and expand its refining capacity. The company will revise its investmentplan next year to include the development of new oil reserves it bought fromthe government as part of its share sale earlier this year and said it receivedon average $72.10 a barrel for its oil in Brazil, compared with $64 a barrel ayear earlier. The company cut gasoline prices by 4.5 percent and diesel 15percent in June 2009 and hasn’t increased them since. Profit from the company’sexploration and production operations, its biggest unit, rose 31 percent,offsetting lower results from the other units such as gas & energy anddistribution, Petrobras said. Petrobras fell 41 centavos, or 1.5 percent, to26.72 reais at the 6 p.m. close of Sao Paulo trading yesterday. The stock hasplunged 27 percent this year, compared with a 3.8 percent gain for Brazil’sbenchmark Bovespa index. Petrobras posted a 1.97 billion-real financial gain,up 36 percent from a year earlier, after the real rose 7 percent against thedollar in the quarter. “These currency fluctuations are volatilities that arepart of the process,” Chief Financial Officer Almir Barbassa told reportersyesterday in Rio de Janeiro. Petrobras will need to sell $32 billion of newdebt through 2014 and roll over an additional $38 billion as it seeks to doubleproduction over the next decade, Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabriellitold reporters in Rio de Janeiro Nov. 9.”

State LawRequires the Buckeye State to Reduce Energy Use by 22 Percent by 2025;Unemployment Not High Enough?Akron Beacon Journal (11/12) editorializes,“FirstEnergy flopped with its first run at complying with a new state lawrequiring utilities to reduce customers’ energy use 22 percent by 2025. Manycustomers reacted with fury at plans to leave energy-efficient light bulbs ontheir doorsteps — and an additional cost in their monthly bills. TheAkron-based power company retreated and reworked its proposal. It did so withspeed in mind. The electricity restructuring law requires year-to-year progressin reaching the mandated goal. FirstEnergy didn’t want to fall further behind.So, a few months later, in December of last year, the company unveiled itsalternative. The package largely reflected the approach of other utilities inthe state. Nothing controversial, really, among other things, an appliance turn-inprogram, home energy audits, incentives for energy-efficient new homes. Eventhose compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have made a reappearance,available for a discount. All that remained was approval from Public UtilitiesCommission of Ohio. When did the OK arrive? In a few months? By summer? Thecommission still hasn’t delivered its judgment — almost a year later.Perhaps the commission is skittish, given its own prominent role in the fiascolast year. Yet it is the public body overseeing the implementation of a publicpolicy decision, involving no small urgency.

Sure ourEconomy is Still Struggling; Not Stopping Oil From Hitting $100, Thanks toRobust growth in China!Bloomberg (11/12) reports, “China’sdrive to curb energy use is exacerbating a shortage of diesel, sending refiningprofits to the highest level in almost two years and raising the likelihood oilwill trade at $100 a barrel in coming months. The return from processing Dubaicrude into diesel, or gasoil, climbed above $14 a barrel in Singapore today tothe highest level since January 2008, after service stations ran dry in China’seastern and southern coastal provinces, according to prices from PVM OilAssociates, a London-based brokerage. The margin from turning Brent into gasoilin Europe rose 15 percent since Nov. 5, prices on the ICE Futures Europeexchange show. China is limiting power supplies to meet Premier Wen Jiabao’sgoal of cutting energy use under a five-year plan that ends next month. That’sprompting factories to resort to using their own diesel-powered generators,driving up demand for the fuel and forcing refiners such as PetroChina Co.,Asia’s biggest company, to process more crude. Refining rose to a record inOctober, Chinese government data showed yesterday. “We expect this to have abullish impact on not only the regional diesel market, but it may converge withother factors to create a perfect storm in driving up the oil price,” said PaulTing, president of Paul Ting Energy Vision LLC, an energy research company inNew Jersey.”