OVERNIGHT ENERGY: EPA’s ozone rule hits the home stretch

by Timothy Cama - 03/16/15 6:22 PM ET

LAST CALL FOR OZONE COMMENTS: Tuesday is the last opportunity for companies, associations, politicians and others to file formal comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on its ozone reduction proposal.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) took the opportunity Monday to preview its comments for reporters, focusing on the fact that so many areas haven’t attained the previous level set in 2008 and the potential costs of the rule.

{mosads}”We think it makes sense that people should start working on attaining those standards right now, and there is no new compelling health information, so people should work on those standards right now before considering tightening those,” Howard Feldman, the group’s regulatory affairs director, told reporters.

The oil industry wants the rule scrapped completely.

Eleven Republican governors agreed.

“New development resulting in any new ozone emissions in the area must be offset with emission reductions elsewhere — turning economic development into a zero-sum game,” they wrote in a Monday letter to the EPA.

Read more here and here. And keep an eye on The Hill Tuesday and Wednesday as the comments roll in, and as the House Science Committee holds a hearing on the regulation.

WILL THE GOP CHANGE ITS TUNE ON CLIMATE?: President Obama thinks so.

He told Vice News in an interview released Monday that the Republican Party is just going through a “phase” when it says human-caused climate change is not real.

“I guarantee that the Republican Party will have to change its approach to climate change because voters will insist upon it,” he said.

Read more about Obama’s interview here.

ON TAP TUESDAY I: The House Science Committee will host a hearing Tuesday on the scientific backing for the EPA’s ground-level ozone proposal.

The hearing comes the day that comments are due from the public on the rule.

The panel will bring in representatives from the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Harvard Medical School, A.S.L. & Associates and the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District in California.

ON TAP TUESDAY II: The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subpanel on energy and power will hold a hearing Tuesday on legal and cost issues with the EPA’s climate rule for power plants.

Expect Republicans on the panel to highlight the testimony of Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law School professor of constitutional law who once taught President Obama and later served in his administration. Tribe, on retainer from coal producer Peabody Energy Corp., will repeat what he told the EPA: the proposed rule is completely unconstitutional.

The legal side of the hearing will also feature Richard Revesz of New York University School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity and Alison Wood of Hunton & Williams.

For the cost of the proposal, lawmakers will hear from representatives of four states: Florida, Maryland, Ohio and North Carolina. Maryland’s Kelly Speakes-Backman is also chairwoman of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Rest of Tuesday’s agenda …

The House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on conservation and forestry will hold a hearing Tuesday on the EPA’s “waters of the United States” proposal to define its reach under the Clean Water Act. The panel will hear from state environmental and agriculture officials, as well as leaders from stakeholder groups affected by the proposal, mostly from agriculture.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will speak Tuesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies to outline the coming two years in her agency’s plans for energy development.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hear Tuesday from the public and private sectors on technological innovations in the electrical grid.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s subcommittee on fisheries, water and wildlife will hold a hearing on the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2015.

Budget hearings …

Subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee will host hearings Tuesday on the proposed 2016 budgets for the Energy Department’s applied energy programs and science office; the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service.

Subcommittees of the House Natural Resources Committee will host hearings Tuesday on the proposed 2016 budgets for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Office of Natural Resources Revenue and the National Park Service.

AROUND THE WEB:

Oxford University alumni occupied a building at the university Monday to protest its delay in its decision on whether to divest from fossil fuels, BBC News reports.

Tesla Motors Inc. shares rose nearly 4 percent Monday after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted that it will unveil a software update this week to “end range anxiety,” MarketWatch reports.

Coal mining company Murray Energy Corp. is paying $1.4 billion to acquire a controlling stake in competitor Foresight Energy, making it one of the largest coal companies in the country, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

– Highway advocates oppose ‘dangerous’ gas tax elimination calls
– Obama guarantees GOP will change on climate
– GOP governors blast EPA ozone rule
– Chemical reform bill is ‘deeply problematic,’ law experts say
– Oil lobby wants ozone rule scrapped
– Gore: ‘Put a price’ on climate skepticism
– Chinese premier pledges to get tougher on polluters
– Task force releases plan to combat illegal fishing
– Boston breaks snowfall record
– Week ahead: GOP spotlight on EPA rules, crude oil ban