Week ahead: House gets to work on energy reform

The House Energy and Commerce Committee will kick off efforts this week toward writing Congress’s first comprehensive energy legislation in eight years.

The panel’s energy and power subcommittee on Thursday will examine draft legislation meant to train a 21st century workforce, committee officials said.

The draft legislation has not been unveiled, nor has the witness list. But in a framework of the reform plan released earlier this year, the committee said it wants to better prepare workers for the demands of the changing energy and manufacturing industries amid the oil and gas boom of recent years.

{mosads}“This draft will allow the Department of Energy, along with the national laboratories, community colleges, and public-private partnerships, to better coordinate and leverage existing resources to foster an energy and manufacturing workforce for the 21st century,” it said.

The legislation on energy workers is part of a larger package House Republicans are pushing to boost energy production.  

Other congressional committees will hold hearings this week to examine funding requests, regulations, and agency personnel.

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled Wednesday to vote on the funding bill for the Energy Department and water-related programs. A subcommittee approved the bill last week.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will also get involved in the spending process, when its water resources and environment subcommittee meets Wednesday about the 2016 budget requests from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The House Science Committee will scrutinize the Obama administration’s proposed regulations for hydraulic fracturing on public lands in a Thursday hearing on the science behind the rules. Lawmakers will hear from various stakeholders on the proposal.

Marking five years since the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill at a BP-owned well, the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on what has happened since then, entitled “Innovations in Safety Since the 2010 Macondo Incident,” referring to the name of the well site.

On the other side of Capitol Hill, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday will discuss the nomination of Vanessa Sutherland to be the chairwoman of the Chemical Safety Board.

Sutherland would replace Rafael Moure-Eraso, who resigned after President Obama asked him to leave amid allegations he broke various laws and being under pressure from a bipartisan group of lawmakers.

The American Council on Renewable Energy will host its annual policy forum Thursday. Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) will all give speeches.

The American Association of Port Authorities will host its annual conference Monday through Wednesday, where Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy will speak Tuesday the role ports play in sustainability. 

RECENT STORIES:

Feds weigh drilling fee hike: http://bit.ly/1PYNCu5

Court skeptical of challenge to EPA’s climate rule: http://bit.ly/1DfSX6y

GOP criticizes Obama’s ‘restrictive’ offshore drilling plan: http://bit.ly/1yAvEZl

EPA, Dems assail bill targeting climate rule: http://bit.ly/1G41Siw

Regulators tighten rules for offshore drillers: http://bit.ly/1baZSbh