Dale Hall
| May 20, 2013, 2:20 p.m.
As the Agriculture committees in the House and Senate turn their attention to considering and reporting out a five-year farm bill this month, it’s important to consider how many Americans have felt the negative effects of not having a comprehensive bill.
Mark Wenzler
| May 17, 2013, 1:41 p.m.
When he visited the Grand Canyon 100 years ago this month, President Theodore Roosevelt admonished Americans to “leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you.”
By
Lauren Gardner
| May 14, 2013, 3 p.m.
To mark National Skin Cancer Awareness Month, a group dedicated to educating schoolchildren about the hazards of too much sun exposure will hold a reception Wednesday to honor winners of its annual poster contest.
By
Lauren Gardner
| May 14, 2013, 2:52 p.m.
SunWise isn’t the only EPA education program on the budget chopping block.
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Emily Cadei
| May 13, 2013, 3:55 p.m.
After a temporary lull, Congress is gearing up to try to pass new Iran sanctions legislation in the coming months that could severely restrict whole segments of Iranian commerce, including oil. The aim is to have votes in both chambers as early as June, with a consensus bill moving to the president’s desk before the August recess.
Andrew Garfinkel and H Kenneth Hudnell
| May 13, 2013, 1:27 p.m.
Congress must ask the Environmental Protection Agency why, after more than 40 years of increasingly costly watershed management (WSM) technologies and best-management practices, water quality is continuing to deteriorate. Since enactment of the Clean Water Act in 1972, controlling point- and nonpoint-source nutrient and pollutant loading from watersheds into waterbodies has been the EPA’s sole method of addressing waterbody impairment. The agency failed to implement the third pillar of the CWA, waterbody management (WBM). A systems approach is needed to improve water quality using effective and cost-efficient WSM practices and WBM interventions so that freshwater impairment can be reversed and prevented in the near term at a much lower overall cost.
By
Nathan Hurst, Lauren Gardner
| May 10, 2013, 6:31 p.m.
Louisiana Democrat Mary L. Landrieu has revamped her amendment to freeze flood insurance rates for five years, removing the biggest obstacle to final Senate action this week on legislation to authorize federal projects for flood control, navigation and environmental restoration.
Rep. Bill Cassidy
| May 10, 2013, 2:03 p.m.
In 2010, President Barack Obama failed to pass his signature cap-and-trade legislation in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Among the concerns was that the expensive, onerous mandates placed on manufacturers and energy producers would destroy jobs and lead to increased energy costs for consumers and businesses. Realizing Congress was unwilling to pass such destructive and far-reaching mandates, Obama took an alternate route of pursuing his cap-and-trade policies through backdoor regulations at the Environmental Protection Agency.
J.C. Boggs
| May 9, 2013, 5 a.m.
The Keystone Kops, fictional incompetent policemen featured in silent film in the early 20th century, are back in less comedic and all too real form with a new mission to block development of the Keystone XL pipeline and trip up efforts to obtain the requisite government approvals that will enable the United States to enhance its energy independence.
David Williams
| May 7, 2013, 5 a.m.
The Environmental Protection Agency is always looking for ways to expand its power and scope. That’s not exactly news in Washington and not dissimilar to most federal bureaucracies. But unlike many other agencies, the EPA has figured out a way to completely eschew government transparency and circumvent the traditional regulatory process in a way that needlessly spends more taxpayer dollars.
Gregory C. Staple and Brian A. Skretny
| May 6, 2013, 5 a.m.
During a March trip to Argonne Labs, one of the government’s premier research sites, President Barack Obama challenged Congress to help him “break th[e] cycle of spiking gas prices” and “shift our cars and trucks off of oil” by creating a new Energy Security Trust. Funded with royalty payments from federal oil and gas leases, the trust would invest $2 billion over 10 years on research and development for alternative transportation fuels including electric batteries, biofuels, hydrogen fuel cells and natural gas.
By
Ellyn Ferguson
| May 3, 2013, 1:21 p.m.
A House panel’s decision to look back at mandates set in the 2007 renewable-energy law could be a pivotal moment for industries hoping to slow down growth in the ethanol industry.
By
Ellyn Ferguson
| May 3, 2013, 1:19 p.m.
The Renewable Fuel Standard underscores the difficulties of trying to plan for the future.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva
| April 29, 2013, 2:40 p.m.
The Endangered Species Act turns 40 this year. It’s provided our country and its wild places with a lot of benefits. It’s also been the target of attacks from committed opponents, including some of my House colleagues.
By
Lauren Gardner
| April 24, 2013, 11:55 a.m.
The musical chairmanship game set off by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ retirement could put one of the Democrats’ biggest oil and gas industry boosters in charge of the Energy panel — and simultaneously improve her re-election chances.
By
Lauren Gardner
| April 23, 2013, 4:17 p.m.
In addition to its status as a carbon-free energy source that can provide baseload electricity, hydropower also offers a window into a future where variable renewables — such as wind and solar — can be more widely integrated into the grid.
By
Lauren Gardner
| April 23, 2013, 4:15 p.m.
In February, the House did something rare: It passed an energy bill unanimously. Unlike the previous Congress’ standard fare of anti-EPA, pro-drilling measures, the first energy bill of the 113th Congress promoted small-scale hydropower projects and the electrification of existing dams.
Peter Gardett
| April 19, 2013, 5 a.m.
When an ExxonMobil-owned pipeline spilled crude oil across backyards in Arkansas recently, the debate over what had happened turned strangely but not unexpectedly to Keystone XL, the proposed pipeline extension project that would bring Canadian crude across the center of the United States to the high-tech, world-class refineries that line the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
Barry Russell
| April 18, 2013, 4:04 p.m.
As Congress begins its annual budget process, oil and natural-gas production continues to increase across the United States, giving us a chance to reinvigorate our economy while finally reversing our dependency on sources of energy from unstable regions of the world. Unfortunately, the president’s 2014 budget proposes to reverse this progress by eliminating critical energy tax provisions that stimulate investment in safe domestic-energy production.
Michael Shank and Jose Aguto
| April 18, 2013, 4:01 p.m.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision last week to delay greenhouse gas emissions regulations for new power plants — one of President Barack Obama’s main levers to limit global warming — is a serious setback to our country’s commitment to environmental and health safety. Thankfully, Congress can lead where the administration is not, and a perfect place to start is the House Ways and Means Committee’s bipartisan comprehensive public outreach effort to explore significant tax changes.
