WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
2/1/13

IN CONGRESS

Members of a recently-created bicameral task force on climate change wrote to stakeholders this week requesting input on how the federal government could act to reduce carbon pollution and strengthen the nation’s resiliency to climate change. Task force co-chairs Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) sent letters to more than 300 stakeholder businesses and organizations asking for their suggestions on the issue. “Today, we are calling on hundreds of diverse organizations—from the Sierra Club to the Southern Company—to give us their best ideas for addressing climate change,” Waxman said in a statement. “We can’t delay action any longer. We want to jumpstart action by seeking recommendations on what every part of government can do now.” Launched last week, the task force particularly aims to find actions the president can take using existing executive authority to address climate change without Congressional approval.

New Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member David Vitter (R-La.) reintroduced legislation this week that would ban the Obama Administration from regulating greenhouse gases until other big emitters like China, India and Russia enact similar reductions. “This would prevent the unilateral increase in the cost of energy to U.S. consumers and businesses while China, India and Russia avoid taking any action,” Vitter’s office said in a release. Vitter introduced a similar measure last Congress that was not taken up by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

IN THE ADMINISTRATION

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced earlier this week that he will not serve a second term in the Obama Administration. LaHood, one of the only Republicans serving in the Obama Cabinet, helped negotiate stringent fuel efficiency standards for cars, pushing through one of the Administration’s biggest greenhouse gas reduction policies to date. LaHood previously served seven terms as an Illinois Congressman in a west-central district that encompasses the current FutureGen 2.0 project site. While serving in the House, LaHood was an early supporter of the initial FutureGen project, and along with other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation, protested when the Bush Administration moved to kill the Department of Energy project in 2008.

Environmental groups cheered the Senate’s Jan. 29 confirmation of John Kerry to be Secretary of State. The upper chamber voted 94-3 to approve Kerry’s nomination to replace the outgoing Hillary Clinton. Kerry has been a vocal supporter of limiting carbon emissions, and green groups said they hope that enthusiasm can translate into the work he does at the State Department. “Now, one of the strongest champions for climate action in the Senate will be our nation’s top climate negotiator. We are excited that he will bring his strong credentials on climate to the critical decisions facing our planet, including increasing access to affordable clean energy options and stopping the expansion of dirty tar sands and coal worldwide,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in a statement. “His strong environmental record in the Senate and longtime leadership in the fight against climate change gives us hope that as Secretary of State, he will reject the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and push for strong international action,” League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski said in a media release.

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT

The Norwegian Sea has the potential to store up to 5.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of more than 100 times of Norway’s annual CO2 emissions, according to a new CO2 storage atlas released Jan. 25 by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, the atlas is based on studies from more than 40 years of petroleum activity on the Norwegian continental shelf and data from Statoil’s two CO2 storage projects at Sleipner and Snøhvit. The environmental NGO Bellona said the results of the study are “very good news” for CO2 storage in Europe. “The positive prospective for storage discovered in the Norwegian Sea could play a vital role in managing CO2 emissions in Europe by offering storage space to European countries that are lacking in this capacity,” the Oslo-based group said on its website. Norway has had a carbon tax in place on offshore oil and gas operations since 1991.