WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/20/13

IN CONGRESS

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced plans the week to introduce a bill supporting recent Obama Administration efforts to limit short-lived pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons, methane and black carbon. Murphy said he is working on the legislation with fellow Democratic Senators Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Al Franken (Minn.) and that he hopes to introduce the bill in the coming weeks. “Clearly we’re in an overall stalemate [in Congress] when it comes to big, bold action on the issue of climate,” Murphy said during a Sept. 16 Congressional briefing. “But short-lived pollutants give us some ability to have some action while avoiding some of the typical political problems that surround trying to mitigate the contribution of carbon dioxide.” Murphy added that such efforts could “put a real dent” in the current pace of climate change.

Bipartisan energy efficiency legislation stalled in the Senate late this week after squabbles related to non-germane amendments threatened to kill the chances of the first major energy bill the upper chamber has considered in six years. Senate Democratic leaders moved to pull the so-called Shaheen-Portman bill from the floor Sept. 19 in order to clear the schedule for consideration of a must-pass stop-gap funding measure. Leaders had failed to agree on a way to proceed with the legislation after senators came forward with a slew of contentious amendments related to issues like ObamaCare and the Keystone XL pipeline that weighed down the otherwise non-controversial measure. Other riders to the bill targeted EPA’s new source performance standards and the Obama Administration’s recent changes to its social cost of carbon estimates.

Elizabeth Robinson, the Obama Administration’s choice to fill the new position of Under Secretary of Energy for Management and Performance at the Department of Energy, breezed through a confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week. Robinson faced few questions from committee members, who instead focused the bulk of the hearing on the nomination of Ronald Binz to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Robinson did come in for praise, though, from committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who said she is “very well qualified” for the new Under Secretary position, which will oversee DOE’s offices of Environmental Management and Legacy Management, as well as several support offices. “The Under Secretary for Management and Performance is being given an enormously important and challenging portfolio, and Dr. Robinson will bring a quarter-century of experience with federal budget and science-and-technology issues to the job,” Wyden said.

IN DOE

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz tapped longtime aide Melanie Kenderdine to direct the Department’s new Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis this week. The Office was created several weeks ago after Moniz chose to split DOE’s Office of Policy and International Affairs. The Office of International Affairs was created from the reorganization effort as well. Kenderdine had worked with Moniz at the MIT Energy Initiative and as an appointee within the Clinton Administration.