Greenwire
All but four Senate Republicans today backed an upper-chamber plan to undo President Obama's rejection of a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and immediately begin construction of the $7 billion link between Canada's oil sands and Gulf Coast refineries.
The introduction of a new Senate bill expediting the XL line, which Obama denied a permit on Jan. 18, gives that chamber two parallel paths to keep the project in the public eye this spring. Today's legislation, authored by Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.), would replace the executive order that empowered the State Department to review and ultimately urge a veto of the pipeline with a go-ahead from the legislative branch. One Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has signed on as a co-sponsor. Read More ...
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E&E News
President Obama confronted a deeply divided and sluggish Congress last night and pledged to increase clean energy development on public lands. "The differences in this chamber may be too deep right now to pass a comprehensive plan to fight climate change," Obama said during his State of the Union address. "But there's no reason why Congress shouldn't at least set a clean energy standard that creates a market for innovation."
Obama took an aggressive tone, scolding Congress for failing to follow through on his call last year for a clean energy standard, or CES, which calls for the generation of up to 80 percent of the country's electricity from low-carbon sources by 2035. Read More ...
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Greenwire
In a move that is angering environmental and public health groups, U.S. EPA is delaying setting new standards for fine particles that come from power plants, automotive tailpipes and factory smokestacks until June 2013. EPA is required to review current science and set standards for fine particle pollution every five years under the Clean Air Act. The agency was supposed to complete its review of fine particles, or soot, by last October, but failed to meet the deadline. In a filing last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, EPA said it needed more time to finish the standard, which environmental groups say is long overdue. The agency said it plans to issue proposed new standards this June in hopes of finalizing them a year later. Read More ...
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Washington Post Opinions
On Tuesday, President Obama’s Jobs Council reminded the nation that it is still hooked on fossil fuels, and will be for a long time. “Continuing to deliver inexpensive and reliable energy,” the council reported, “is going to require the United States to optimize all of its natural resources and construct pathways (pipelines, transmission and distribution) to deliver electricity and fuel.”
It added that regulatory “and permitting obstacles that could threaten the development of some energy projects, negatively impact jobs and weaken our energy infrastructure need to be addressed.” Mr. Obama’s Jobs Council could start by calling out . . . the Obama administration. Read More ...
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