OVERNIGHT ENERGY: How your pumpkin spice latte is tied to the climate rule
6 DEGREES OF SEPARATION: Well, more like two. You buy your pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, Starbucks endorses the administration’s landmark climate rule on carbon pollution from existing power plants, and boom, you are connected.
{mosads}Starbucks along with 222 other businesses sent a letter to President Obama on Tuesday in support of his carbon pollution rule, which mandates the nation’s fleet of existing power plants cut emissions 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030.
Other major companies you are probably supporting include Nike, Nestle, IKEA, Ben and Jerry’s, Kellogg Company, Levi Strauss, New Belgium Brewing, The North Face, and more.
Read more here.
TAX EXTENDERS: The House is set to vote on a tax extenders package on Wednesday proposed by Republicans that will likely pass with ease. The package includes extending tax credits for the wind industry, but only for one year.
The House bill extends the 2.3 cent per kilowatt hour tax credit for wind until January of next year. Despite opposition from liberal Democrats in the Senate, the White House looks like it will settle with the legislation.
While the package was proposed by House Republicans, conservative energy group, American Energy Alliance, opposes the legislation, calling it a “sweetheart deal” for wind.
“A vote for this deal is also an endorsement of President Obama’s climate agenda as the PTC is integral to the administration’s costly climate action plan,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the group.
Proponents of the tax credit argue it’s a critical part of wind power’s development and ability to remain competitive as a source of electricity.
ON TAP WEDNESDAY I: White House adviser to the president, John Podesta, will keynote the National Summit on Smart Grid and Climate Change. Podesta is seen as the driving force behind the president’s carbon pollution rule, a key pillar of his climate agenda.
ON TAP WEDNESDAY II: The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s implementation of recommendations from the Fukushima Task Force.
Rest of Wednesday’s agenda…
The Senate Finance subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and Infrastructure will hold a hearing on natural gas vehicles and boosting U.S. jobs, and energy security while cutting emissions.
The Senate Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing on farmers’ voluntary efforts to protect land and water through conservation. It will feature Jason Weller, chief of the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service; Toledo, Ohio Mayor Michael Collins; and a slew of experts and stakeholders in agriculture and conservation.
The House Science Committee will host a hearing to examine the results of a pair of audits of the National Ecological Observatory Network.
The White House will host its 2014 Tribal Nations Conference with various top administration officials and leaders from more than 500 American Indian tribes. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will give a speech and lead some panel discussions, and Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy will give the closing remarks.
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will be in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday to participate in the United States-European Union Energy Council, which is meant to improve energy cooperation across the Atlantic Ocean.
NEWS BITE:
Climate activist Bill McKibben is stepping down as chairman of the board of 350.org, the green activist group that he helped found in 2007. He said he’ll stay on as a “senior adviser” to the group, and will be doing largely the same work as before.
“But no one should run a board forever, and so I think it’s time someone else should be engaged in that particular task, leaving me more energy and opportunity for figuring out strategies and organizing campaigns,” he wrote on 350’s website. “And also more time and energy for writing, which is how I got into all of this in the first place.”
KC Golden, an environmental organizer from Seattle, will take over the board’s leadership role.
AROUND THE WEB:
In response to an uptick in traffic crashes near oilfields, the Texas Department of Transportation is lowering speed limits near some drilling sites, the Texas Tribune reports.
Former Vice President Al Gore said oil investors are facing a cliff in par with the subprime mortgage crisis, Bloomberg News reports.
Researchers say oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill is still stuck in Alabama’s beaches, the Associated Press reports.
Eight out of 10 Americans believe climate change is happening, according to a survey from reinsurance firm Munich Re America, USA Today reports.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
Check out Tuesday’s stories…
– Energy commissioner blasts EPA climate rule
– Feds distribute revenues from energy production on federal, Indian land
– Greens press EPA to finalize strong smog protections
– Senate passes increase in duck stamp price
– Nike, IKEA join 221 companies in backing EPA’s climate rule
– Inhofe presses EPA to withdraw climate rule
– Senate panel’s Dems vote to extend nuclear regulator’s term
– EPA eases media rules for scientists
– Report: Tumbling oil prices could eliminate US production growth
– UN official calls fossil fuels ‘high risk’ investment
– Hillary Clinton: Climate changing ‘no matter what deniers may say’
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