Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 192
November Surprises
Senate Democrats are considering a vote in the lame-duck session to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, a move that may bolster Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) re-election chances in next month’s runoff election, Bloomberg reports.
“Landrieu, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, in her campaign has sought to distance herself from Obama on energy issues, including his delay in approving the pipeline. She has backed the pipeline project.”
“The new Republican Congress is headed for a clash with the White House over two ambitious Environmental Protection Agency regulations that are the heart of President Obama’s climate change agenda,” the New York Times reports.
“Senator Mitch McConnell, the next majority leader, has already vowed to fight the rules, which could curb planet-warming carbon pollution but ultimately shut down coal-fired power plants in his native Kentucky. Mr. McConnell and other Republicans are, in the meantime, stepping up their demands that the president approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to carry petroleum from Canadian oil sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast.”
“At this point, Republicans do not have the votes to repeal the E.P.A. regulations, which will have far more impact on curbing carbon emissions than stopping the pipeline, but they say they will use their new powers to delay, defund and otherwise undermine them.”
Wonk Wire notes a big victory in Nebraska for opponents of the pipeline.
“More than two dozen of the nation’s biggest corporations, including the five major oil companies, are planning their future growth on the expectation that the government will force them to pay a price for carbon pollution as a way to control global warming,” the New York Times reports.
” The development is a striking departure from conservative orthodoxy and a reflection of growing divisions between the Republican Party and its business supporters.”
“Forget the high-stakes showdown over a spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down,” USA Today
reports.
“When it comes to political dysfunction of this Congress,
Exhibit A is unfolding in the Senate over a modest, bipartisan
energy-efficiency bill. Sponsored by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) the
legislation has become entangled in a nasty debate over completely
unrelated issues — including ‘Obamacare’ and prostitution allegations.
The spat has even sparked an ethics complaint raising allegations of
bribery and intimidation.”
A new National Journal Poll finds that 67% of Americans support building the Keystone XL pipeline to carry Canadian oil to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast; that includes 56% of Democrats. Just 24% oppose the project.
Grist: “A study out Monday in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined attitudes about energy efficiency in liberals and conservatives, and found that promoting energy-efficient products and services on the basis of their environmental benefits actually turned conservatives off from picking them.”
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) claimed the University of Maine is trying to trick people into thinking that windmills are working, the Bangor Daily News reports.
Said LePage: “Guess what, if it’s not blowing wind outside and they have somebody visiting the campus, they have a little electric motor that turns the blades. I’m serious. They have an electric motor so they can show people that wind power works. Unbelievable. And that’s the government that you have here in the state of Maine,”
A university spokesman says that when there’s no wind the turbines don’t spin at all.
President Obama will nominate EPA air chief Gina McCarthy as the agency’s next administrator and MIT physicist Ernest Moniz to take over the Energy Department, Politico reports.
“The long-anticipated announcements will place McCarthy and Moniz in crucial roles in Obama’s agenda to tackle climate change while building an economy based on green energy, yet taking advantage of a boom in domestic production of oil and natural gas.”
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is the leading candidate to replace Steven Chu as energy secretary in President Obama’s second term, Bloomberg reports.
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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