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In Case You Missed It - FOX News: Environmentalists Accused of Using Tax Dollars to Sue Government

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

HOST:	“Every year, the government hands out millions to various green organizations to support their efforts to protect the environment, but what looks like a great idea may have a thornier side. Critics say the same environmentalists receiving the help are bleeding the government dry with mountains of lawsuits paid for by -- guess who? You. William La Jeunesse is live from Los Angeles. Alright - how many lawsuits are we talking about here, and how much do they cost?
LAJEUNESSE:	Well John, we’re talking hundreds of lawsuits and millions of dollars paid out in legal fees from your pocket. Let's go to the graphic and I’ll show you some examples. Wild Earth Guardians - they got $140,000 from the federal government in a grant – and yet they sued the government 241 times. The Natural Resources Defense Council - $4 million from taxpayers, sued the government 488 times. You add in the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, that’s over 2000 cases in nine years. Now, the group that put this stuff together, the Western Legacy Alliance, has come up with about $10 million in legal fees in just a few courts with a few groups. Why does it happen? Well, the government has a fund. It’s called the Equal Access to Justice Act. Now private corporations could not recover, but if you are a nonprofit public interest groups, even if your budget like the Sierra Club is over $50 million a year, they can collect. And in some cases we’re talking $650 an hour for their attorneys.
HOST:	Unbelievable. What kinds of cases are we talking about?
LAJEUNESSE:	Well, in some cases, they are very procedural. The government will settle a case. Sometimes they win. Even when they settle, we have to pay. Let me give you an example. A few years ago, the Center for Biological Diversity sued the CIA because they were not buying enough hybrid cars. We paid out in that case. Another one, in one month, the Forest Guardians filed petitions to list 700 endangered species. Now, the government has 90 days to respond to that with a scientific finding. It’s a volume of paper. If they miss it by one day, they get sued, and you and I have to pay.
HOST:	So, the environmentalists are winning a lot of these cases.
LAJEUNESSE:	They are winning the cases, John. Sometimes they are paid if they lose, but it the government does not admit guilt but simply settles because they do not want to do it -- in one case, there was a Forest Service policy that they did not want to continue. Seven attorneys from environmental groups, five environmental groups, were paid $500,000 because we didn’t defend the policy but we didn’t admit guilt. Now, a Congresswoman from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis said I need investigation. How much is being paid out of this Equal Access to Justice Fund and is it being abused because these groups, that fund was set up for poor individuals to recover when they sued the federal government. Not necessarily a $100 million organization that files suit time and time again on what many consider frivolous or procedural – not substantive cases.

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A Postcard from All-of-the-Above American Energy to President Obama in Seoul, South Korea

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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Background:

The Energy Information Administration reports that:
“With limited domestic energy resources, South Korea is almost entirely dependent on imports to meet its energy consumption needs.”

On November 11th, the White House announced that President Obama would hold a Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth on December 3rd.
However, the Associated Press reported today that:

“President Barack Obama says creating jobs isn't the goal of a coming White House forum on jobs and economic growth.”

President Obama told NBC News that he is holding this forum:

“To find out what exactly is going on.”

In June 2009, House Republicans introduced the American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) - an all-of-the-above energy plan that will responsibly use our natural resources to create new energy and new jobs. This bill includes specific measures to encourage development of renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biomass, while also producing more American-made oil and natural gas.

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Other postcards in the series:

A Postcard from U.S. Electricity, Beijing, China (November 16, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Refineries, Suntec City, Singapore (November 13, 2009)

Another Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, Tokyo, Japan (November 12, 2009)

Another Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Kenner, Louisiana, USA (October 14, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Wind Energy, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA (August 21, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, L'Aguila, Italy (July 7, 2009)

A Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (June 2, 2009)

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H.R. 2781 Blocks Timber Production, Costing Jobs

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This week, the House will consider H.R. 2781, a bill to designate segments of the Molalla River in Oregon as components of the Wild and Scenic River Systems. As with all wild and scenic rivers, this designation could prevent full recreation use and economic development on this land, as well as potentially impact neighboring private property. Such designations preclude the ability to make future decisions without an act of Congress. There are many ways to protect and manage our rivers without imposing such absolute, permanent and inflexible mandates that do not allow us to adapt to new circumstances, evolving environmental science, and changing public needs and views.

Of specific concern is that this bill would block timber production on over 400 acres of land, resulting in lost job opportunities and reduced tax revenue for rural communities in Oregon where statewide unemployment has reached 11.5 percent, with it spiking even higher in timber-job dependent areas.

The timber industry provides a critical source of tax revenue for many Pacific Northwest communities that depend on it to fund schools, infrastructure projects and local services such as fire fighting. The Northwest’s timber industry has already been hit hard by the current recession and locking up more timber land will only exacerbate the current economic crisis.

The Democrat sponsor of the bill, Rep. Kurt Schrader, recognized the negative economic impacts. On October 1, 2009, he testified before the House National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee: "As the committee moves forward, I would ask the Chairman and Ranking Member to work with me and my staff to ensure there will be no net-loss of the acres available for timber management as a result of this legislation.”

Unfortunately, at Committee markup, the Democrat majority not only ignored Rep. Schrader’s request, but blocked Republican efforts to offer an amendment requiring the Bureau of Land Management to designate new lands available for timber production to offset the loss of timber lands as a result of the bill. The Rules Committee has also blocked Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) from offering the same amendment on the House floor.

Without an amendment to offset lost timber land, this bill will cause further job loss and increased economic hardship.

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A Postcard from U.S. Electricity to President Obama in Beijing

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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Background:

Yesterday, during a town hall in Shanghai, President Obama said that the United States and China should be held to different standards for reducing their emissions since China (the world’s highest CO2 emitter) has “much more poverty”:
“There's going to be a Copenhagen conference in December in which world leaders are trying to find a recipe so that we can all make commitments that are differentiated so each country would not have the same obligations -- obviously China, which has much more poverty, should not have to do exactly the same thing as the United States -- but all of us should have these certain obligations in terms of what our plan will be to reduce these greenhouse gases.”

In January 17, 2008, candidate- Obama said:
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”

As Reuters reported on November 14^th:
“Asia Pacific leaders backed away on Saturday from supporting a global halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

In January 2008, candidate-Obama said:
“So, if somebody wants to build a coal plant, they can — it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

In September 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported that:
“China's ambition to create ‘green cities’ powered by huge wind farms comes with a dirty little secret: Dozens of new coal-fired power plants need to be installed as well.”

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Other postcards in the series:

A Postcard from All-of-the-Above American Energy, Seoul, South Korea (November 18, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Refineries, Suntec City, Singapore (November 13, 2009)

Another Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, Tokyo, Japan (November 12, 2009)

Another Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Kenner, Louisiana, USA (October 14, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Wind Energy, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA (August 21, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, L'Aguila, Italy (July 7, 2009)

A Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (June 2, 2009)

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A Postcard from U.S. Refineries to President Obama in Singapore

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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Background:

The House Republican Conference confirms that “the newest significant refinery began operating in 1977.”

The Energy Information Administration’s profile on Singapore.

The Congressional Research Service reports:
“Hurricanes Katrina and Rita shut down oil and gas production from the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, the source for 25% of U.S. crude oil production and 20% of natural gas output. Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, resulted in the shutdown of most crude oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a great deal of refining capacity in Louisiana and Alabama, 554,000 barrels per day of which was still closed as of late October, 2005.”

The American Petroleum Institute reports that:
“The United States will be more dependent on imports of gasoline and other petroleum fuels while U.S. refining production would be shifted overseas if a climate change bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives becomes law.”

The Republican American Energy Act will:

Increase American supplies of gasoline and diesel by encouraging greater refinery capacity by streamlining and accelerating the refinery permitting process.
Require the President to designate at least three closed military installations as potentially suitable for construction of a refinery, including at least one suitable for refining biomass to produce biofuel.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms that the median refinery worker makes almost $55,000 a year.

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Other postcards in the series:

A Postcard from All-of-the-Above American Energy, Seoul, South Korea (November 18, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Electricity, Beijing, China (November 16, 2009)

Another Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, Tokyo, Japan (November 12, 2009)

Another Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Kenner, Louisiana, USA (October 14, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Wind Energy, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA (August 21, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, L'Aguila, Italy (July 7, 2009)

A Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (June 2, 2009)

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Another Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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Background:

On Thursday, November 12^th, President Obama departed for a tour of Asia that includes stops in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

Press briefing by Deputy National Security Advisor Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes; National Security Council Senior Director for East Asian Affairs, Jeffery Bader; and Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman on the President’s trip to Asia, November 9, 2009.

World Nuclear Association, Country Briefings, http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf79.html.

House Republicans Draft Energy Bill With Heavy Focus on Nuclear Power, New York Times, June 9, 2009.

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Memo casts doubt on license for Yucca repository, Las Vegas Review-Journal, November 10, 2009.

In a speech on April 22, 2009, President Obama expressed support for all types of energy, including nuclear:
“It's going to take a variety of energy sources, pursued through a variety of policies, to drastically reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. As I've often said, in the short term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. We're not going to transform our economy overnight. We still need more oil, we still need more gas. If we've got some here in the United States that we can use, we should find it and do so in an environmentally sustainable way. We also need to find safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste.”

On October 27, 2009, President Obama again expressed support for nuclear energy:
“That's going to finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America -- legislation that will make the best use of resources we have in abundance, through clean coal technology, safe nuclear power, sustainably grown biofuels, and energy we harness from the wind, waves, and sun.”

The Republican American Energy Act (H.R. 2846) is an all-of-the-above approach that includes renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biomass, while also producing more American-made oil and natural gas. This is the best way to grow our economy, create new high-paying jobs, protect our environment, and provide affordable energy.

Barack Obama campaign website.

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Other postcards in the series:

A Postcard from All-of-the-Above American Energy, Seoul, South Korea (November 18, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Electricity, Beijing, China (November 16, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Refineries, Suntec City, Singapore (November 13, 2009)

Another Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Kenner, Louisiana, USA (October 14, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Wind Energy, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA (August 21, 2009)

A Postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy, L'Aguila, Italy (July 7, 2009)

A Postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (June 2, 2009)

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New Nuclear Power Plants: Britain 10, U.S. Zero

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Today, Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post reports that the British government unveiled plans yesterday to construct 10 nuclear power plants. He notes that:

“After years of resistance to construction of nuclear-power plants, the British plan underscored how nations around the world are scrambling to find ways to generate more energy while slashing the emissions that cause climate change. To do that, nations including the United States are considering more reliance on nuclear power, which, while generating radioactive waste, produces almost no carbon emissions.”

While Republicans have put forward a plan for increased nuclear power, the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress continue to stand in the way. Just this morning, Keith Rogers of the Las Vegas Review Journal reported:

“The Obama administration intends to stop the pursuit of a license for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in December, according to internal budget documents from the Department of Energy. All license defense activities will be terminated in December 2009," said a draft Program Decision Memorandum that was attached to an Oct. 23 memo from DOE Chief Financial Officer Steve Isakowitz.”

As a reminder, the Republican American Energy Act establishes a national goal to bring 100 new nuclear reactors online over the next 20 years to strengthen America’s commitment to clean, reliable energy.

President Obama Travels the World but Leaves U.S. Energy Behind

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT

On Thursday, President Obama kicks off his tour of Asia, which includes stops in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea. During his travel, we’ll send out postcards from U.S. Energy sources to President Obama to highlight specific examples of international energy development that should be included in his Administration’s energy strategy.

As you can see in the map above, President Obama (on Air Force One) has already visited four other stops that symbolize how his Administration hasn’t moved forward with all-of-the-above American energy development:

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (View the postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf)
The Energy Information Administration reports that the United States imported 14% of its oil from Saudi Arabia in 2008. We could decrease our dependence on foreign oil if President Obama would finally open up the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf to offshore drilling.

L’Aquila, Italy – the 2009 G8 Summit (View the postcard from U.S. Nuclear Energy)
While many G8 Countries (France, Japan, and Germany) have embraced carbon-free nuclear power, the Obama Administration did not include nuclear in its job-killing National Energy Tax plan.

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts (View the postcard from U.S. Wind Energy)
During President Obama’s vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, he unfortunately did not take time to publically support the nearby Cape Wind project – America’s first offshore wind farm.

New Orleans, Louisiana (View the postcard from the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf)
During President Obama’s brief afternoon visit to New Orleans, he missed an opportunity to learn how new technology has made offshore drilling an environmentally safe practice that creates high-paying jobs.

Suntec City, Singapore (View the postcard from U.S. Refineries)
Singapore is a country that refines nearly twice its rate of oil consumption and is a major refining center for Southeast Asia. However, the United States hasn’t built a refinery in over 30 years.

Beijing, China (View the postcard from U.S. Electricity)
China is the world’s highest CO2 emitter – but President Obama wants to hold China and the United States to two completely different emission standards.

Seoul, South Korea (View the postcard from All-of-the-Above American Energy)
While South Korea has to settle for importing almost all of its energy, the United States can develop a wide range of domestic energy sources - only if President Obama will let us.

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Hastings: “President Obama and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly slammed the door on a wide array of energy jobs”

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA-04) released the following statement regarding the Department of Labor’s report that the U.S. economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, raising the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent:

“Unfortunately, it’s official. Over one in ten Americans are now looking for a job. Today’s report confirms once again that the Democrats’ massive government spending and job-killing policies aren’t putting more Americans back to work.

“While President Obama regularly says he is exploring each and every avenue for job creation in America, that’s just not the case. President Obama and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly slammed the door on a wide array of energy jobs.

“The Republican all-of-the-above energy plan is one way to help create more high-paying jobs across our country – including green jobs, nuclear jobs, mining jobs, manufacturing jobs, clean natural gas jobs, and oil drilling jobs. If Democrats truly want to help more Americans get back to work, they will embrace our American Energy Act.”

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In Case You Missed It - E&E Daily: GOP lawmakers urge Interior to continue streamlining permitting

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

A group of House Republicans is urging the Interior Department not to back off its use of a provision to streamline oil and gas drilling applications on public lands, despite lawsuits from environmental groups.

Section 390 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act allows the Bureau of Land Management to approve certain oil and gas projects without preparing new environmental analyses that would normally be required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Environmentalists have challenged in court some projects approved under the measure, saying BLM failed to analyze or consider environmental impacts to the areas.

GOP lawmakers sent a letter to Salazar yesterday calling categorical exclusions "a valuable tool provided by Congress to the land management agencies to improve the government process of approving energy production, while at the same time ensuring protection of the environment." House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Doc Hastings of Washington sent the letter along with Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah, Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.

"We are deeply concerned about a common practice of the Departments of the Interior and Justice of settling lawsuits filed without forcefully defending authorized agency actions," they wrote. "We are worried that an out of court settlement by this Department would eliminate or severely limit the use of categorical exclusions and further prohibit the production of U.S. oil and natural gas."

A spokeswoman for the lawmakers said Interior is facing several challenges and is expected to settle one of them, possibly a lawsuit filed last year by environmentalists over a project in Utah. Three groups claim that BLM's approval of 25 gas wells in Utah's Nine Mile Canyon did not comply with environmental laws to assess impacts to the area and that Native American rock art would be harmed by drilling-related activity (Land Letter, Aug. 14, 2008).

The lawmakers also cautioned Interior not to overdo changes to its internal guidance on using the categorical exclusions. The Government Accountability Office in September recommended that Congress consider amending the 2005 law to clarify Section 390 and that BLM take steps to improve implementation of the provision by clarifying agency guidance, standardizing decision documents and boosting oversight. The Interior Department in September agreed with the recommendations and said it would take immediate steps to address the issue.

"While we support the department's efforts to develop new guidance to address the few issues of consistency identified by GAO in the use of these categorical exclusions, we are concerned the Department of the Interior is prepared to use a sledgehammer where a scalpel would suffice," the lawmakers wrote.

They added that BLM has been "cautious and overly conservative" in its use of categorical exclusions.

But critics say the provision allows BLM to exceed development levels analyzed in NEPA documents, such as the number of wells to be drilled, without doing further analysis.

An Interior spokeswoman said the department is reviewing the letter.

The GAO investigation found that the BLM illegally approved some oil and gas drilling applications on public lands from 2006 to 2008. BLM used categorical exclusions to approve more than a quarter of applications during those years -- about 6,100 of 22,000 -- and to modify hundreds of existing permits, GAO said. The agency's use of the measure has "frequently been out of compliance" with both the law and BLM's own guidance and may have thwarted NEPA, it said.

GAO found several types of violations of the law, including approving more than one oil or gas well under a single decision document, approving projects that did not meet the law's criteria, and drilling a new well after deadlines had lapsed.

Fundamental questions about what the Section 390 categorical exclusions are, and how they should be used, have led to concerns that BLM may be using them in too many -- or too few -- instances, GAO found. There also is disagreement over whether BLM must screen them for extraordinary circumstances that would prevent their use, whether their use is mandatory and how the public can challenge their use, the report said (E&ENews PM, Sept. 16).

House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) has introduced legislation (H.R. 3534) to overhaul the federal royalty system that contains a provision to repeal Section 390.

111th United States Congress Begins

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:59:00 GMT

Full Committee Organizational Meeting for the 111th Congress

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:09:24 GMT

Full Committee Oversight hearing: “Offshore Drilling: Environmental and Commercial Perspectives”

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:23:30 GMT

Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Legislative Hearing on H.R. 493

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:37:36 GMT

Full Committee Oversight hearing on “Offshore Drilling: State Perspectives”

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:43:14 GMT

Full Committee Oversight hearing on “Offshore Drilling: Industry Perspectives”

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:19:28 GMT

Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife legislative hearing on H.R. 860 and H.R. 934

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:07:07 GMT

Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Legislative hearing on H.R. 699

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:45:58 GMT

Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Oversight Hearing on Energy Outlooks

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:44:25 GMT

Subcommittee On Energy And Mineral Resources Oversight Hearing on Outer Continental Shelf Technical Challenges

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:56:07 GMT