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.'"
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Tyson Slocum
Biography provided by participant
Tyson Slocum is director of Public Citizen's Energy Program, covering climate change, coal, oil, fracking, nuclear energy, renewables and commodity market oversight. Tyson Slocum advocates for decentralized, affordable renewable energy for working families. Tyson has expertise on federal subsidies for the energy sector and promotes refocusing such incentives away from the nuclear, oil and coal industries toward rooftop solar and wind energy, energy efficiency and mass transit.
Tyson covers the regulation of electricity, natural gas and petroleum markets, including commodity futures and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdictional matters to promote transparency. Tyson serves on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee. Tyson also covers federal legislative efforts to address climate change, particularly the impact such programs will have on the ability of moderate- and low-income households to afford access to sustainable energy. Tyson is the author of numerous reports on these subjects and has presented his findings in testimony before the U.S. Congress. He appears regularly in print and on radio and television shows, including on PBS Newshour, The Colbert Report, MSNBC, Fox News and CNBC.
Prior to working for Public Citizen, Tyson was an analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. He received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and grew up in Newport, Rhode Island.
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