Political Roundup: Recess Edition
Posted August 20, 2010 at 10:22 am 
Filed in: On the heels of the Senate’s inability pass a significant energy bill this summer, Senators left DC two weeks ago for recess. At home, much like in DC, the cacophony of opinions on energy policy continued.
Greenwire reports that, “American Petroleum Institute kicks off what it dubs ‘citizen rallies’ on Sept. 1 with events in Houston, Corpus Christi and Beaumont, Texas. Partnering with local energy groups and other business organizations, the trade group wants to drive support that can translate into calls and letters to Congress members.” On the other side of the aisle, “Clean Energy Works, an alliance of about 60 groups that want congressional action on climate will hold a ‘Carnivoil’ event in 25 cities this month. Modeled after a traveling carnival and featuring the subtitle ‘The Greatest Addiction on Earth,’ it aims to show the oil industry as a sector run amok and with too much political power.”
Jack Gerard, president of API, continued his organization’s pushback against the drilling moratorium in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. He states, “We at API understand that April 20 has changed the landscape for our industry. But we are also keenly aware that America still needs oil and natural gas, and will need it for decades to come. We believe that our nation’s long-term energy security is too important to be decided on short-term political considerations. That is our motivation for demanding reasoned responses to what happened in the Gulf.”
In a guest blog on Monday in The Washington Post, John Hofmeister–former president of Shell Oil–seems to agree. He states, “The facts, which the oil companies know far better than politicians, are on the side of the drilling enthusiasts. Every morning as President Obama awakes to his duties, one of them is to see to it that America has the 20 million barrels of oil it needs to get through the day. Like it or not, we burn through 10,000 gallons of oil per second in this country and nothing will change that during the president’s first and – because of likely high gas prices — only term. By choosing politics over energy production the president has planted the seeds of his administration’s demise.”
Although the jury is still out on the administration’s final spill response, Politico reports that the White House website has seen some major changes in the past few weeks, “Deleted items include a section titled ‘Closing the Carbon Loophole and Cracking Down on Polluters that offered broad-brush goals for ‘protecting American consumers’ and ‘promoting U.S. competitiveness.’ Also eliminated was President Barack Obama’s oft-repeated campaign call to spend $150 billion over a decade on ‘energy research and development to transition to a clean energy economy.’”
Although these changes signal very little in terms of actual energy policy, they do highlight the administration’s careful posturing before the final pre-election congressional session. In another move, President Obama stated his desire for EPA standards on emissions limits for heavy duty trucks. In a memo, reported by Greenwire, Obama writes, “Preliminary estimates show that large tractor trailers — which represent half of all greenhouse gas emissions from the sector — can slash greenhouse gas emissions up to 20 percent and boost fuel efficiency up to 25 percent by using existing technologies.”
As this week made clear, the congressional recess is no break for the energy debate. In the next few weeks, we expect to see even more noise as policy proponents continue to push for their solutions to be addressed when Congress returns to Washington.
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