The EPA Regs Kick in on Jan 2. By John Broder, NYTimes, 12/31/10. “With the federal government set to regulate climate-altering gases from factories and power plants for the first time, the Obama administration and the new Congress are headed for a clash that carries substantial risks for both sides… The administration is on notice that if it moves too far and too fast in trying to curtail the ubiquitous gases that are heating the planet it risks a Congressional backlash that could set back the effort for years. But the newly muscular Republicans in Congress could also stumble by moving too aggressively to handcuff the Environmental Protection Agency, provoking a popular outcry that they are endangering public health in the service of their well-heeled patrons in industry… With Mr. Obama’s hand forced by the mandates of the Clean Air Act and a 2007 Supreme Court decision, his EPA. will impose the first regulation of major stationary sources of greenhouse gases starting Jan. 2.”

EPA Moving Unilaterally to Limit Greenhouse Gases. By Merrill Hartson, AP, 12/24/10. “EPA announced [on 12/23 that] it is moving unilaterally to clamp down on power plant and oil refinery greenhouse emissions, announcing plans for developing new standards over the next year. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said the aim was to better cope with pollution contributing to climate change. ‘We are following through on our commitment to proceed in a measured and careful way to reduce GHG pollution that threatens the health and welfare of Americans,’ Jackson said in a statement. She said emissions from power plants and oil refineries constitute about 40% of the greenhouse gas pollution in this country.”

Pelosi’s ‘Green the Capitol’ Initiative Headed to the Trash Heap of History. By Sarah Abruzzese, Greenwire, 12/10/10. “Republicans are likely to make significant changes to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's ‘Green the Capitol’ initiative in the coming months. The initiative, which was launched when Pelosi (D-Calif.) became speaker in 2007, has attempted to change the way members and their staffs think about energy and the environment in their daily work lives, emphasizing recycling and energy efficiency. According to the House chief administrative officer, the program has diverted more than 75,000 pounds of waste from landfills, cut more than 400,000 pounds of carbon emissions and saved more than 175,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Several members of the House Republican transition team said they are fairly certain that the operations budget for the Capitol will be cut with the GOP set to take over, meaning that some of Pelosi's high-profile and costly environmentally friendly programs may end up in the trash heap of history.”

Graham, Unhappy with GOP Position on Carbon, Prepares to Push Nukes and Renewables. By Evan Lehmann, ClimateWire, 12/14/10. “Sen. Lindsey Graham is concerned that the Republican Party faces political dangers by resisting efforts to reduce carbon dioxide and other air pollution… [He] is designing an agenda for next year featuring a ‘clean energy standard’ for utilities, which rewards increased nuclear and renewable power alike. Similar ideas have failed because they tended to dilute incentives for wind and solar. But under an increasingly conservative Congress, many advocates see that outcome as a potential victory, under reduced expectations.”

EPA Head Lisa Jackson is Prepared for Battle. By Juliet Eilperin, WashPost, 12/3/10. “Lisa Jackson's ability to focus on her intellectual priorities has earned plaudits from environmentalists, who see her as one of their most effective champions of public health measures. But it could also put her very mission at risk. As the EPA celebrates its 40th anniversary Thursday, her pursuit of sweeping rules to curb the nation's output of carbon dioxide and other pollutants could trigger a backlash from the newly empowered Republicans in Congress… The White House is being lobbied hard to rein in the EPA when it comes to several proposals, including those on boilers and smog-forming pollutants. And it is unclear how much influence Jackson wields within the administration, compared with higher-profile environmental officials such as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Carol Browner, the White House energy and climate-change adviser.”

Senate Democrats Approve Extension of Incentives for Renewables. By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters, 12/10/10. “The compromise tax package unveiled by Senate Democrats on Dec. 9 includes a one-year extension of a popular renewable energy grant program, which supporters say is vital for the clean energy sector. The potential extension of the program… allows solar, wind and other renewable companies to receive cash grants in lieu of tax credits.”

Ethanol Lobby Poised for Another Win. By Darren Goode, Politico, 12/3/10. “The ethanol industry -- which is being attacked from everyone from tea party backers to Al Gore -- nonetheless may be poised to win another victory on Capitol Hill and continue a decades-long ride of federal help for at least one more year. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) undoubtedly gave comfort to backers of the corn-based gasoline additive when he included a sought-after one-year extension of a key expiring ethanol tax credit as part of a much-larger middle class tax cut package he unveiled on 12/2/10. The 45-cent volumetric excise ethanol tax credit -- set to expire at year’s end -- would be extended through next year at 36 cents per gallon.”

Senator Feinstein Seeks to Reduce Ethanol Tax Credit. Reuters, 12/13/10. “Senator Dianne Feinstein on Monday sought to add an amendment to a massive tax bill with a measure that would cut the ethanol tax credit and import tariff to 36 cents a gallon each -- a huge cut in biofuels support rates. The current U.S. ethanol tax credit of 45 cents and the import tariff of 54 cents would be extended through 2011 under the tax bill. They will expire on December 31 unless the House and Senate agree to renew them.” Senate Approves Biofuel and Clean Tech Tax Break. Business Green, 12/16/10. “The US renewable energy and biofuel industries were celebrating yesterday after the Senate overwhelming approved plans to extend crucial green tax breaks and grant programs.”

Resource Scarcities and Climate Change Pose Concerns for Pentagon. By Thom Shanker, NYTimes, 12/12/10. “Countries thirst for oil, compete for minerals and confront climate change. The American military, with surprising allies, worries that these issues represent a new source of conflict. Intelligence institutions assume that the 21st century will be shaped not just by competitive economic growth, but also by disruptive scarcities… Now a new field of systematic study is opening within research centers, the Pentagon and intelligence institutions. It assumes that the 21st century will be shaped not just by competitive economic growth, but also by potentially disruptive scarcities -- depletion of minerals; desertification of land; pollution or overuse of water; weather changes that kill fish and farms. National security experts have begun to label such factors threats to “natural security” and to study them, often alongside environmental or advocacy groups. A basic question frames their thinking: What are the new relationships among resources, diplomacy, crisis and conflict?… Here are five scenarios, current or anticipated…”

Recent Elections Represent a New Low for Climate Policy. By Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker, 11/22/10 issue. “To be sure, even before the midterm elections, the prospects for meaningful action on climate change in Washington were dim... The [House] Waxman-Markey bill, which would have imposed a nationwide cap on emissions…. was convoluted in all the usual, special-interest-driven ways, and not nearly ambitious enough to produce the emissions cuts that are needed… The Senate dithered, President Obama was silent…Still, the recent election represents a new low… House Republicans and their Tea Party allies reject even the idea of concern. Not content merely to ignore the science, they have decided to go after the scientists.”

The GOP's Coming Climate Witch Hunt. By Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones, 11/8/10. “Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the incoming head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has pledged to hold hearings on the ‘Politicization of Science,’ which will consist of a rehashing of the so-called ClimateGate ‘scandal.’ He's also called for greater oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency's coming regulations of greenhouse gases. With Issa in charge, the oversight committee will devote a good deal of time to hauling government and university climate scientists before Congress.”

Rep. Joe Barton Vows Probe of White House Policies in Move for House Energy Gavel. By Ben Geman, TheHill, 100/27/10. “Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is vowing to quickly probe White House environmental policies he calls economically harmful if he becomes chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee next year. Barton is the panel's senior Republican and a former chair, but Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is considered the front-runner for the gavel if Republicans reclaim the House. Barton -- a climate skeptic and advocate of expanded drilling -- says he would undertake a wide-ranging investigation of Obama administration decisions on healthcare, global warming, communications and other matters… Barton was politically damaged by his now-infamous apology to BP in June, which he quickly retracted under pressure from GOP leadership.”

EPA Unveils New Efficiency and Emission Standards for Trucks. By John M. Broder, NYTimes, 10/26/10. “The federal government unveiled the first national emissions and fuel economy standards for heavy vehicles on Monday [10/25/10], one of a series of regulatory steps that the Obama administration is taking in the absence of Congressional action on climate change…

“The mileage proposal, which is scheduled to become final next year after a period of public comment, will apply to tractor-trailers, buses, delivery vans, heavy pickup trucks, cement mixers and many other classes of vehicles. It will cover new vehicles manufactured between 2014 and 2018. The proposed policy would apply different standards to different vehicles, based on weight and intended use. For example, over-the-road tractor-trailers would be required to achieve a 20% reduction in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 2018. Heavy-duty pickups and vans would be subject to different gasoline and diesel fuel standards, with reductions ranging from 10 to 15%. Other work trucks would have to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 10% by 2018.”

$6 Billion California Solar Plant Gets Federal Approval. MSNBC, 10/25/10. “Calling it a major milestone, the Obama administration on Monday approved what investors say will be the world's largest concentrated solar power plant and one that more than doubles all of U.S. solar output and can power at least 300,000 homes. The project in the Mojave Desert near Blythe, Calif., is the sixth solar venture authorized on federal lands within the last month. All are in desert areas.

“‘The Blythe Solar Power Project is a major milestone in our nation’s renewable energy economy and shows that the United States intends to compete and lead in the technologies of the future,’ Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in announcing the approval. Construction on the $6 billion plant is expected to start by the end of 2010, with production starting in 2013. Developer Solar Millennium, a company based in Germany, says the plant will generate 1,066 construction jobs and 295 permanent jobs.”

Vilsack Announces $1.5 Billion Subsidy for Biofuel Production. By Charles Abbott, Reuters, 10/21/10. “The government is offering more than $1.5 billion in assistance, from field to filling station, to bring next-generation biofuels to market, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday [10/21/10]. Vilsack said the aid would assure renewable fuel consumption reaches 36 billion gallons by 2022, with the bulk of it coming from non-food sources such as grass, algae or woody plants... Vilsack also urged Congress to revive a biodiesel tax credit and to extend, possibly at a lower rate, an ethanol tax credit due to expire on Dec 31. He said a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on imported ethanol was likely to continue but eventually be phased out… Ethanol makers will produce about 13 billion gallons of the renewable fuel this year, chiefly from corn.”

Hillary Clinton Says U.S. Needs Canadian ‘Dirty Oil'. By David Ebner, TorontoGlobe&Mail, 10/22/10. “The United States needs Canada’s ‘dirty oil,’ the energy-hungry country is set to concede after a raucous environmental debate that has threatened the expansion of Alberta’s oil sands. The U.S. especially needs the oil sands to keep the country’s crucial refining hub on the Gulf Coast humming, a key factor that underpins the U.S. government’s likely approval of a controversial new oil sands pipeline... But the swirling political debate appears to be near an end. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has confronted the reality of the United States’ energy situation and decided that the U.S. needs Canada’s oil sands. It might be ‘dirty oil,’ she said in a key speech last week, but supporting the flow of the oil is a necessary part of a ‘very hard balancing act’ between energy security and the pursuit of new clean energy technologies. The Gulf Coast around Houston is the largest refining hub in the U.S., but supply to the region has dwindled because output in Mexico is in decline and Venezuela is moving some of its oil elsewhere for political reasons. The difficult-to-refine oil from the oil sands is similar to the crude oil from Mexico and Venezuela.”

Chevron Announces 2 Giant Drilling Ventures in Gulf. By Clifford Krauss, NYTimes, 10/21/10. “Just nine days after the Obama Administration lifted the deepwater drilling moratorium, Chevron announced on Thursday that it was going forward with a $7.5 billion project to develop two giant deepwater fields in the gulf. The Jack and St. Malo fields hold in excess of 500 million barrels of recoverable hydrocarbons, the company said. That’s roughly equal to the world’s oil consumption in about five day.”

EPA Urges Revoking West Virginia Mountaintop Mining Permit. By John M. Broder, NYTimes, 10/16/10. “A top federal regulator has recommended revoking the permit for one of the nation’s largest planned mountaintop removal mining projects, saying it would be devastating to miles of West Virginia streams and the plant and animal life they support. In a report submitted last month and made public on Friday, Shawn M. Garvin, EPA regional administrator for the Mid-Atlantic, said that Arch Coal’s proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County should be stopped because it ‘would likely have unacceptable adverse effects on wildlife.’

“In 2007, the Bush administration approved the project, which would involve dynamiting the tops off mountains over 2,278 acres to get at the coal beneath while dumping the resulting rubble, known as spoil, into nearby valleys and streams. The Obama administration announced last year that it would review the decision, prompting the mine owner, Arch Coal, based in St. Louis, to sue. In its review, the E.P.A. found that the project would bury more than seven miles of the Pigeonroost Branch and Oldhouse Branch streams under 110 million cubic yards of spoil, killing everything in them and sending downstream a flood of contaminants, toxic substances and life-choking algae. Kim Link, a spokeswoman for Arch Coal, said in a statement that the company intended to ‘vigorously’ challenge the recommendation. ‘If the E.P.A. proceeds with its unlawful veto of the Spruce permit -- as it appears determined to do -- West Virginia’s economy and future tax base will suffer a serious blow,’ Ms. Link said. She said the company planned to spend $250 million on the project, creating 250 jobs and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenues in a struggling region.”

EPA to OK Higher Ethanol-Gas Blends. By Robin Bravender, Politico, 10/12/10. “The Obama administration will approve a boost in gasoline’s ethanol content for new cars on Wednesday, in a partial victory for supporters of the corn-based fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to issue its long-awaited decision on a petition from the ethanol industry, which wants to raise the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline to 15% from the current 10%. EPA will approve the use of gasoline with 15% ethanol (E15) for new vehicles built in model year 2007 and after… but will reject the request to raise the ethanol content for vehicles manufactured before 2001 and for off-road machinery. The agency is expected to hold off on a decision on cars for model years 2001-2006 until later this year…

“An unusual coalition composed of oil industry groups, environmentalists, food manufacturers and others has lobbied EPA to delay its decision based on concerns about safety, the environmental effects of boosted ethanol production, and fears of rising food costs. The ethanol industry and its backers, meanwhile, are expected to applaud EPA’s decision on new vehicles, but will likely prod the agency to allow its use in older vehicles. Growth Energy, the ethanol trade group that filed the petition seeking the waiver, has said the higher ethanol blend is safe for all cars.”

Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium Lifted: Neither Side is Happy. By Mark Guarino, CSMonitor, 10/12/10. “The Obama administration lifted its moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico Tuesday (10/12/10), replacing it with what Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is calling a “gold standard” of safety standards for operators looking to drill in water depths greater than 500 feet. Following the announcement, environmental groups said that it was ‘premature’ to lift the moratorium, while oil-industry operators worried that federal regulators are not finished creating new drilling standards.

“Among the new safety measures: 1) Operators must have their blowout preventer inspected and its design reviewed by an independent third party. 2) They must present a report showing how they would prevent or reduce a blowout at the wellhead. 3) They must get all their casing designs and cementing procedures certified by a professional engineer... The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which issues new permits for deep-water drilling in the Gulf, is ‘working to develop additional rules and guidelines’ past what is being established this week, said director Michael Bromwich. In the meantime, he added, ‘We will not approve permits or make decisions before the appropriate safeguards are in place.’”