Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is frustrated with what she views as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's political posturing. Speaking to NationalJournal.com Tuesday evening at the Capitol, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee took sides with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in his ongoing dispute with Reid, who faces a tough re-election fight in Nevada, over whether immigration reform should be tabled this year so a climate bill can move forward. "I think Senator Graham is right to be more than just a little bit irritated about what has happened with the process," Murkowski said.
Murkowski also expressed her support for moving forward with an energy bill that her committee approved last year, but warned that if Democrats try amending that bill to include cap-and-trade -- an idea that Reid and others have floated -- "it sinks the ship." Edited excerpts of the interview follow.
Continue reading Murkowski: Reid Is Playing Politics.
Michael Morris, president and CEO of American Electric Power, is planning for a carbon-constrained future. Morris said his Columbus, Ohio-based power company is likely to build new natural gas plants to comply with future federal limits on the nation's greenhouse gases. That could mean shutting down some of the company's oldest coal-fired power plants. Seventy-three percent of the electricity that AEP sells now comes from coal plants.
But Morris opposes efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency to control greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. He argues that if Congress is unable to pass a climate change bill, it should block EPA action. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Power Company Preps For Low-Carbon Future.
The Obama administration is regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act primarily to force Congress to pass climate change legislation, argues Jack Gerard, chairman and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. Gerard described the EPA regulations as a political "game of chicken" that could hurt the U.S. economy. Gerard, who previously headed the National Mining Association and the American Chemistry Council, also said that the president's plan to open oil and natural gas development along the U.S. coasts is not likely to help pass a climate change bill.
Following is an edited excerpt of Gerard's recent interview with National Journal.
Continue reading Gerard: EPA Battle Could Hurt Economy.
The EPA's plans to limit corporate emissions of global warming pollution are likely to have "very significant adverse consequences" on U.S. chemical companies, according to Cal Dooley, president and CEO of the American Chemistry Council. Dooley argued that companies would find more innovative ways to cut their emissions if Congress passed a climate change bill instead of allowing the EPA to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act.
A former Democratic congressman from California, Dooley also headed up the Grocery Manufacturers Association and the Food Products Association. Following are edited excerpts of Dooley's recent interview with National Journal.
Continue reading Legislate, Don't Regulate, Says Chemical Lobby.
A lot of attention has been given this year to the backlog of claims at the Department of Veterans Affairs. But one veterans advocate believes that the backlog is not the real issue when it comes to some veterans having to wait years before they receive their benefits. Ronald Abrams, joint executive director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, says the backlog is just the symptom. The real issue is that the "VA has to repeat its work on many occasions." NationalJournal.com spoke with Abrams about the claims process and his recommendations for reducing the backlog. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Abrams: VA Claims Backlog Not The Real Issue.
Fortune 500 companies are scrambling to respond to climate change, in part to protect their corporate images, according to Jonathan Wootliff, head of corporate accountability at Reputation Partners, a communications firm based in Chicago. Wootliff, who was previously communications director for Greenpeace International, said that multinational companies are leading the charge to establish U.S. environmental standards for greenhouse gas emissions. The international push to control climate change pollution will spur new innovation in energy and environmental products, he argued, predicting that "the next Bill Gates is going to be in this arena." Following is an edited excerpt of Wootliff's recent interview with National Journal.
Continue reading Wootliff: Businesses Ahead Of Enviro Curve.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I/D-Conn., is a central player in the Senate climate change debate, working with Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to craft compromise legislation. Lieberman has been involved in climate change issues since 2003, when he worked with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Congress' first global-warming legislation.
Lieberman spoke with National Journal on Monday. Read edited excerpts in our Energy & Environment section.
A year after the "empathy" standard for Supreme Court nominees became a hot topic, Sen. Ben Cardin says President Obama should put it behind him.
The Maryland Democrat was asked recently about comments by fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., that there's been "a near-universal rejection of President Obama's empathy standard, the flawed notion that judges should allow personal feelings, political opinions, and social views to guide judicial decision-making."
Cardin's take: "My advice to Obama would be pick the best person. He shouldn't worry about satisfying anyone's litmus test. Because there shouldn't be a litmus test for the nominee." The real activism on the court, he said, has come from conservatives "giving power to those who already have power, and making it, I think, just the reverse of what the court should be doing."
Read edited excerpts of this interview at NationalJournal.com's SCOTUS nomination blog, The Ninth Justice.
Not only does Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, her name has also been floated as a possible pick to be President Obama's second Supreme Court nominee.
After Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement Friday, Klobuchar spoke with National Journal.com about the nomination process, the midterm implications of a possible confirmation battle, and why she would decline to accept the honor if nominated.
Read edited excerpts of this interview at NationalJournal.com's SCOTUS nomination blog, The Ninth Justice.
The Internet may have revolutionized communication, but the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan is poised to revolutionize just about everything else -- including your energy use.
The plan is designed in part to give consumers -- and utilities -- more detailed information about electricity usage in order to encourage the smarter energy management required to cushion the transition from traditional to renewable energy sources.
According to Nick Sinai, director of energy and environment for the FCC's broadband initiative, the "smart grid" may become a reality in the next decade. The federal government has a daunting to-do list, which includes revamping the current grid, harmonizing a patchwork of regulatory regimes, enacting measures to protect consumer privacy, and standardizing energy information. But Sinai imagines the day a consumer can adjust his freezer's icemaker while away on vacation, or monitor his family's energy consumption in real time.
"Imagine a home security system, like an ADT or Tyco system, but it also lets you control your lights and monitor your home remotely and set temperature points and so forth," he said. "... That's an example that is outside of the utility business model, and it's outside of the purview of a state regulator on energy, but it's an example of how customers could get value in controlling their energy consumption, value in understanding their energy consumption, and perhaps would be willing to pay that 30 or 40 dollars a month to an integrated home security and home automation company."
NationalJournal.com spoke with Sinai about these and other smart grid issues. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading An Unexpected Energy Solution?.
Thomas Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute, has a long history of involvement with federal environmental policy. Gibson served as deputy staff director and counsel on the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee. He was also chief of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency under former president George W. Bush. Before joining the steel industry group, Gibson was senior vice president for advocacy at the American Chemistry Council. Now he's helping steel companies navigate Washington efforts to control greenhouse gas pollution. He spoke recently with National Journal. Edited excerpts follow.
Continue reading Steel Industry Hopes To Delay EPA Regulation.
