OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Energy Dept. officials gather, Moniz in Japan, and more

ON TAP FRIDAY I: Officials with the Energy Department (DOE) and other agencies will gather for a conference to explore climate risks to energy infrastructure, the winter fuels market and more.

Click here for the agenda for the Winter Energy Outlook Conference at the National Press Club.

Speakers include Adam Sieminski, head of the DOE’s Energy Information Administration, and Judi Greenwald, a senior DOE official who will discuss the department’s 2013 report on energy sector vulnerabilities to climate change and extreme weather.

{mosads}The conference will also feature a senior Department of Homeland Security official discussing cybersecurity and critical infrastructure protection.

ON TAP FRIDAY II: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is slated to visit the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan.

He’s offering stepped-up U.S. collaboration with Tokyo Electric Power Co. on the company’s troubled cleanup effort, The Associated Press reports.

“We expect the relationship in the area of decommissioning between TEPCO and our national laboratories to expand and deepen in the coming years,” Moniz said in Tokyo, according to AP.

Carbon lobbying: Taxpayers for Common Sense, one of the groups waging an uphill battle to win enactment of a carbon tax, has hired the Downey McGrath Group Inc. to lobby on the topic.

Click here for the filing.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out the stories that ran on E2-Wire on Thursday…

– New Senator Booker lands on environment committee
– AAA: 13 percent of US gas stations charging less than $3-per-gallon
– Exxon, amid Keystone question mark, eyes new rail project
– Interior chief seeks balance in use of public lands
– Interior chief: Politics played ‘absolutely no role in park closures
– White House: US will publish fossil fuel subsidy totals
– Senate panel weights shale gas boom’s climate impact
– More than 100 lawmakers urge EPA to change fuel mandate
– Energy secretary will tour Japan’s Fukushima nuke plant

AROUND THE WEB:

The Houston Chronicle reports that Shell will return to the Arctic in search of crude oil after scaling back its operations in the mist of air pollution fines and equipment mishaps.

Bloomberg unwraps the reason behind the fall in wind power used by utilities.

AP reports lightning may have caused a North Dakota pipeline break that spilled 20,000 barrels of oil in September, according to federal regulators.

Please send tips and comments to Ben Geman, ben.geman@digital-stage.thehill.com, or Laura Barron-Lopez, laurab@digital-stage.thehill.com.