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
Susan Dudley
Biography provided by participant
Susan Dudley directs the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and is a research professor in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration. She founded the Center in 2009 to bring high quality academic research to bear on regulatory policy. The Regulatory Studies Center provides serious research on current regulatory issues in a timely way, educates the next generation of policy makers and scholars, and engage policy officials and opinion leaders with solid, independent, and persuasive reasoning.
As the Presidentially-appointed Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from April 2007 through January 2009, Dudley was responsible for the review of draft executive branch regulations under Executive Order 12866, the collection of federal-government-wide information under the Paperwork Reduction Act, the development and implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information policy, privacy, and statistical policy, and international regulatory cooperation efforts. Prior to OIRA, she directed the Regulatory Studies Program at the non-profit Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where she also taught courses on regulation. Earlier in her career, Dudley served as an economist at OIRA, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Recent Responses