April 2009 Archives

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., held a marathon of hearings last week on their draft climate change and energy strategy. Nearly 70 witnesses testified -- many of whom are contributors to this blog. Waxman wants to vote the bill out of committee by Memorial Day.

The draft legislation is facing criticism from moderate Democrats, as well as Republicans, corporate officials and advocacy groups. Something nearly everyone -- including Energy Secretary Steven Chu and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson -- seems to agree on is that the strategy lacks important details, especially those pertaining to a cap-and-trade system. How should Congress address this concern? What three things would you change in, add to or take out of the legislation?

-- Margaret Kriz, NationalJournal.com

13 responses: David Parker, Bill Meadows, Kevin Knobloch, Richard Revesz, Donna Harman, Jim Kerr, Chuck Gray, Frances Beinecke, Rich Wells, Carl Pope, Jon A. Anda, Margo Thorning, Charles Drevna

The Environmental Protection Agency just released a landmark decision concluding that greenhouse gas emissions pose a threat to human health and welfare. The action was based on a 2007 Supreme Court ruling ordering EPA to assess the health impacts of climate change. The Bush White House never completed that study. Now the Obama EPA is in position to slap controls on U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants -- although the agency indicated that it won't rush to impose new regulations.

Will the EPA's action compel Congress to pass climate change legislation? How will it impact U.S. industry? Will the Obama administration's willingness to consider greenhouse gas regulations make it easier for the White House to negotiate an international treaty at the December United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change? If Congress is slow to pass climate change legislation, should EPA begin regulating those pollutants?

-- Margaret Kriz, NationalJournal.com

11 responses: Donna Harman, Frances Beinecke, Jim Kerr, Carl Pope, Jack Gerard, Skip Horvath, Thomas J. Pyle, Charles Drevna, Jeff Holmstead, Eileen Claussen, Cal Dooley

How should the United States manage the Outer Continental Shelf for energy development? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is holding a series of regional meetings on proposals to allow oil and gas development and to pave the way for wind and wave power projects along the U.S. coasts. What are the benefits -- and potential dangers -- of opening America's offshore regions to energy development?

-- Margaret Kriz, NationalJournal.com

15 responses: Margaret Kriz, Cal Dooley, Margaret Kriz, Margaret Kriz, Bill Meadows, Richard Revesz, Donna Harman, Skip Horvath, Jack Gerard, Carl Pope, Rodger Schlickeisen, Thomas J. Pyle, Linda Stuntz, Bill Kovacs, Barry Russell

How can the Obama administration meet its goal of saving more oil within 10 years than America now imports from the Middle East and Venezuela combined? Last year, the U.S. imported 1.3 billion barrels of oil and oil products from those countries. During that time, Americans used a total of 7.1 billion barrels of oil and oil products, of which 4.7 billion barrels were imported. How can Washington break the nation's addiction to oil and make the United States more energy-secure?

-- Margaret Kriz, NationalJournal.com

6 responses: Tom Kuhn, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY, Jack Gerard, Carl Pope, Paul Portney, Bob Dinneen