Energy Roundup: BP campaign cash toxic

There is virtually no candidate who wants to lay his or her hands on campaign
donations from BP after the company’s ruptured well sparked the
unprecedented Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
 
“Money from the
political action committee of beleaguered oil company BP largely remains
a toxic asset in Washington,” the Center for Responsive Politics noted Tuesday, the eve of the six-month anniversary of the April 20 start of the Gulf spill.
 
BP’s
political action committee (PAC) did not write any checks to federal
lawmakers in September, according to the Center’s review of campaign
finance documents filed Tuesday. In fact, the company has not sent any
money to federal lawmakers since May, according to the Center. BP wrote a
$1,000 check to Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas) in May, but Gonzalez
never cashed the check. Most state-level candidates haven’t either. BP’s
PAC wrote off contributions totaling $14,100 from 38 lawmakers in
Indiana in September. The company had sent the checks in June, but the
candidates didn’t cash them.
 
Green groups, on the other hand …
 
On the flip side, green groups are spending their, well, green like gangbusters.
 
The
Sierra Club is releasing four new TV spots this week, including to help
Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.), said Sierra Club’s national political
director, Cathy Duvall. The other races are under lock and key for the
moment, though two of them will be in races where the group has not yet
run ads, she said. Three of the four will bear a Sierra Club-only
disclaimer, while the one in Perriello’s district will be done with the
League of Conservation Voters.

The LCV and Sierra Club have already hit Perriello’s district with recent TV and radio ads attacking his Republican challenger, Robert Hurt. The ads charge that Hurt — a Virginia state senator — is guilty of a conflict of interest for voting to conduct a study examining the safety of uranium mining when he has received donations from the industry and his father has invested in a company seeking to mine uranium in the state. Hurt’s campaign hit back, calling the ads “patently false.”
 
The BlueGreen Alliance and Sierra Club on Tuesday announced a targeted mail campaign to help embattled freshman Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.) in his tough fight against former GOP Rep. Tim Walberg. The 160,000-piece mail campaign — which will run over the last two weeks until Election Day — praises Schauer for voting for “clean” energy jobs in the U.S. instead of China and charges that Walberg supports oil industry policies that drive those jobs overseas.
 
It is meant to counter a comic book-style 30-second TV ad from the National Republican Congressional Committee last week targeting Schauer. The NRCC ad lampooned an earlier TV ad from Schauer where the freshman Democratic congressman asks, “What is Washington thinking?” “Great question, congressman. What were you thinking when you voted for Nancy Pelosi’s national energy tax that could send American manufacturing jobs to China?” the NRCC ad responded. 
 
Sierra Club spending big
 
The Sierra Club is spending close to double in this election cycle what the group spent in independent expenditures in 2006, Duval said. She declined to detail the exact figure. It includes about $400,000 to help Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), smaller help to Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Kentucky Senate Democratic candidate Jack Conway and upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars in seven House races. Overall, the group has endorsed more than 170 candidates and has 34 staffers helping in 30 races.

Is Boucher in trouble?

Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), who helped lead negotiations for coal-state Democrats in last year’s House cap-and-trade debate, may be in trouble. A new NRCC poll shows Boucher and Republican Morgan Griffith tied at 44 percent apiece. Internal party polling should always be taken with a large grain of salt, of course. But other polls also at least show the race tightening. A recent survey by local TV station WDBJ had Boucher up by 10, while a survey by the station a couple weeks earlier had him leading by 15. 

Kerry slams Kirk, says he ‘turned his back’ on climate bill
 
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is apparently making lemonade out of lemons. In a stump speech in Chicago on Tuesday for Illinois Senate Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias, Kerry went after his Republican challenger, Rep. Mark Kirk, who actually was one of only eight Republicans to vote for a House-passed cap-and-trade bill last year. But Kerry said Kirk has since “turned his back on it and moved in the opposite direction.” Kirk has noted on the campaign trail that he would not vote for the bill again if given the chance. Kerry in his speech touted an energy and climate plan he and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) worked on for months before it died. 
 
Upton, Whitfield call for Yucca investigation
 
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to investigate recent news reports suggesting NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko is delaying a ruling on whether the Energy Department has the legal authority to withdraw its license for Nevada’s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
 
“The average nuclear plant generates approximately $430 million in the local community, and the operation of a nuclear plant creates 400 to 700 permanent jobs. Any delay to advance nuclear power places our economy and national security at risk,” Upton and fellow senior Energy panel Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield (Ky.) wrote NRC Inspector General Hubert Bell.
 
Energy Secretary Steven Chu early last year announced the administration intended to kill the decades-delayed Yucca project. Jaczko is a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) — one of the most outspoken congressional opponents of the repository.
 
Oil company wants lawsuit over federal drilling ban to continue
 
“One of the oil companies that sued the Obama administration over its now-rescinded ban on new deepwater oil wells said Tuesday its case should continue because the drilling moratorium isn’t really over,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Ensco Offshore Co. told U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman in a filing that regulators cannot show that they have ‘completely and irrevocably eradicated the effects’ of the moratorium.” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Oct. 12 officially lifted a deepwater drilling ban first imposed in May and said permits could be issued by the end of the year. But industry officials and their congressional advocates have expressed concern that new safety and oversight rules for drilling will slow new permits to a snail’s pace and create a de facto moratorium for both deep- and shallow-water drilling projects. 

Report: Value of nature needs more emphasis

“The world has vastly underestimated the economic value of nature in developing nations, according to a report the United Nations is releasing Wednesday,” The Washington Post reports. “Ecosystems such as fresh water, coral reefs and forests account for between 47 percent and 89 percent of what the U.N. calls ‘the GDP of the poor,’ meaning the source of livelihoods for the rural and forest-dwelling poor, according to the study.”

Gauging the impact of BP’s billions

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal examine the effectiveness of BP’s $20 billion claims fund for Gulf spill victims. “The money has been welcomed as a lifeline,” according to the Post story. “But it has made the coast feel like an open-air economic experiment: Some hardworking fishermen think it’s in their best interest to be idle, losing market share they will need next year. And those who haven’t been paid are looking for legal and illegal ways to work the system.” The Journal story notes that the disbursement of the money has been bumpy. “In the tourist towns and fishing villages along the Gulf Coast, there is rampant confusion and frustration about the payment decisions and timing of BP’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility,” according to the Journal. “Some Gulf businesses were paid in full right away, while their neighbors received nothing or only part of what they requested, without explanation, sparking complaints about inequity.” The story adds: “As of Monday, 209,723 claims have been filed, with 73,346 having been approved for payment, according to the fund’s website. About one-third of the claims — 72,056 — require additional documentation. So far, $1.49 billion has been paid out.”

The Post also sat down for an interview with Kenneth Feinberg, whom President Obama tapped to oversee BP’s claims fund. Feinberg acknowledges that emergency payments have been sluggish. “I thought we could do it much quicker. It takes time for the accountants to look at the documentation and compare it to the claim form. I underestimated that,” he told the Post. Feinberg also notes his job is “not rocket science” but that “you have to have a stiff backbone. You have to be a good listener. You have to be empathetic.”

On tap Wednesday: CAP report details six ‘most threatened’ RES states
 
The Center for American Progress is hosting a 12:30 p.m. conference call featuring Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) in conjunction with an analysis the group will release warning that tough state renewable-power mandates could be casualties of the election.

The analysis notes six states with stringent mandates where a gubernatorial candidate is running this year who either opposes or has been ambiguous in his or her support for the state’s mandate. Ritter is not running for a second term this year. His state’s governor’s race is tight between Democrat John Hickenlooper and former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who is running as a third-party independent. Tancredo was one of the most conservative members of Congress.
 
On tap Wednesday, Part 2: Salazar announces new Ariz. climate center
 
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be in Tempe, Ariz., to announce a new study of the Colorado River Basin and the location of a new climate science center. Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science Anne Castle will join him. 

In case you missed E2 yesterday

Our posts Tuesday included:

Waxman chides U.S. Chamber on climate bill: ‘A stalemate is not a solution’

China to limit exports of ‘rare earth’ minerals vital to energy tech

Pelosi, Markey defend House climate panel

Upton’s agenda: Kill the House climate change committee, battle ‘job killing’ EPA rules

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