Energy & Environment: Markey Wants Answers on Rare Earths
• Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., "is pressing the Obama administration for information about alleged Chinese restrictions on the export of rare earth minerals used in defense and energy technologies, warning of threats to U.S. interests," The Hill reports.
• "Three months after BP capped its runaway well in the Gulf of Mexico, the state of Louisiana is still building a chain of sand berms off its coast to block and capture oil even as federal officials and many scientists argue that the effort will prove pointless," the New York Times reports.
• An Idaho couple has "sued the state to stop the shipments by Imperial Oil and ConocoPhillips" to an oil sands site in Canada, "arguing that the" truck loads delivered there "would threaten the integrity of Idaho's historic portion of U.S. 12, as well as the safety of communities that depend on it as the main road in and out of the area," the Times also reports. "National environmental groups and climate change activists are supporting their efforts, seeing a broader opportunity to stall development of Canada's oil sands, which they denounce as a dirty source of energy. "
• "Combating climate change has long taken a back seat to coal production in West Virginia, but in the hard-fought House race in this state's 1st district, global warming hasn't even made it onto the bus," The Hill reports. "In interviews on Thursday, both the Democratic and Republican nominees for Congress voiced skepticism of the science behind global warming, and the Republican, David McKinley, flatly called concerns about climate change 'an attack on coal.'"
Contributor
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY
Biography provided by participant
Engel serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee including the Subcommittees on Health, and Telecommunications and the Internet. He also serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee and is the Chairman of the Subcommitte on the Western Hemisphere, as well as serving on the Subcommittee on Europe, and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. In addition he serves as vice chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. He is the founder and co-chair of the House Oil and National Security Caucus, which is seeking clean, energy efficient alternatives to America's over-reliance on foreign oil. He is also a member of the Democratic Task Force on Health and serves on the House Caucuses on Human Rights and the Hudson Valley.
In 1969, Engel graduated from Hunter-Lehman College with a B.A. in History and received a Master's Degree in Guidance and Counseling in 1973 from Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York. In 1987, he received a law degree from New York Law School.
For twelve years prior to his election to Congress, Engel served in the New York State Assembly (1977-1988), where he chaired the Committee on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, as well as the Subcommittee on Mitchell-Lama Housing. Prior to that, he was a teacher and guidance counselor in the New York City public school system.
A lifelong resident of the Bronx, Engel is married to Patricia Ennis Engel. They have three children, Julia, Jonathan and Philip.
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