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Energy Secretary: United Nations IPCC Climate Report a Watershed
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on September 29th, 2013
Hill: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said the new United Nations climate report, which finds with 95 percent certainty that humans are the main driver of global warming, bolsters the case for President Obama’s climate plan.
“The report is a watershed report,” Moniz said of the UN science panel’s summary report released Friday, noting it “highlights the importance of moving now on this issue.”
“Clearly the statement about the extreme confidence of the scientists in terms of not only warming, but of...
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Pro-fracking group hits National Park Service over ‘appalling’ comments
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on August 30th, 2013
Hill: The National Park Service is “lend[ing] credence to activist theater” in its formal input on federal hydraulic fracturing rules, a natural-gas industry group alleges.
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), in a letter Thursday to Director Jon Jarvis, basically says the Park Service went rogue in its Aug. 23 comments to a sister agency that’s crafting the upcoming fracking regulations.
The group says the Park Service overstates concerns about leakage of the greenhouse gas methane...
House Dems to Interior: Fracking Rule is Too Weak
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on August 29th, 2013
Hill: Senior Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee say the Interior Department’s draft plan to regulate oil and gas fracking is too weak and even worse than an earlier proposal.
Ranking Democrat Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and five colleagues, in a letter, say the rule gives industry too much leeway to avoid chemical disclosure requirements by claiming trade secrets.
The lawmakers also say the rule would allow many wells in a given oil and gas field to escape oversight, alleging it assumes...
CRS report: Congress can require Keystone oil pipeline approval
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on January 22nd, 2012
Hill: Capitol Hill lawmakers probably have the Constitution at their back if they require a permit for the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline that President Obama rejected days ago, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Republicans are mulling bills that require approval of Keystone XL, which would bring oil sands crude from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries.
The Jan. 20 CRS legal analysis notes that while the executive branch has historically handled the approval of border-crossing...
Koch, GOP fire back at Waxman over oil sands pipeline inquiry
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on May 22nd, 2011
Hill: Koch Industries and House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans are criticizing Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) probe of whether Koch stands to gain from a proposed pipeline to import Canadian oil sands – a project that Republicans hope to expedite with legislation. “Waxman's decision to question a single company rather than looking at the broader effects for the energy sector, U.S. workers, and families reveals his blatant disregard for the 7 in 10 Americans who are struggling to fill up at...
Gas from ‘fracking’ worse than coal on climate: Study
Posted by Hill: Ben Geman on April 11th, 2011
Hill: Cornell University professors will soon publish research that concludes natural gas produced with a drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing” contributes to global warming as much as coal, or even more.
The conclusion is explosive because natural gas enjoys broad political support – including White House backing – due to its domestic abundance and lower carbon dioxide emissions when burned than other fossil fuels.
Cornell Prof. Robert Howarth, however, argues that development of gas from...