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Allen, Kara[Kara.Allen@mail.house.gov]

Allen, Kara

Fri 1/31/2014 2:50:07 PM

SEEC

Daily Clips 1.31.14

Sustainable Energy Environment

Coalition

3

Top news stories:

I think when he uses

that

phrase, it's presenting us with a

menu,

said

Rep

Gerry Connolly (D-Va.),

who is co-chairman of the

House

Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition. There's nothing

wrong

with

that

approach -- and it leaves room for us to debate what

we

pick and choose on that

menu.

The resolution from

SEEC

Vice-Chair

Reps

Rush

Holt

(D-N.J.), SEEC

Member

Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and

SEEC

Member Mike

Honda

(D-Calif.), H.Res.

467,

proposes

the

designation of Feb.

2 as Darwin

Day

to

recognize Charles Darwin's

contributions to

science.

Following

40

years of sustained fighting on

behalf of

human health, the

environment,

and a livable

climate,

SEEC

Member

Congressman

Henry Waxman (D-CA) announced on Thursday

that

he would

retire from Congress after this year.

The

U.S.

State Department is preparing a report that

will

probably disappoint environmentalists and

opponents

of

the

Keystone pipeline, according

to

people

who

have been

briefed

on

the draft

of

the

document. While the report will deviate from a March draft in some ways to the liking of

environmentalists,

the changes won't be as sweeping as

they

had sought, several

people

familiar with

the

government's deliberations over the review told Bloomberg News. Changes could still be made

to

the

report before its release, which could come as early

as tomorrow.

President Barack Obama will

nominate

former federal prosecutor Norman

Bay now

the head

of

enforcement

at the

U.S.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,

to

be the agency's chairman.

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More than 12,000 megawatts

of U S

wind farms were

under

construction

at the

end

of

2013,

the most

ever,

as

developers raced

to

qualify for an expiring federal tax credit, according

to the

American Wind

Energy Association.

For California, 2013 was the driest year since the state started measuring rainfall in 1849.

Paleoclimatologist B Lynn Ingram says

that,

according to the width of old tree rings, California hasn t

been this

dry

for about 500 years.

Energy news:

Wind power advocates urged Congress on Thursday

to

quickly restore the production tax credit

that

expired

at

the end of 2013, saying

that

a prolonged period

without

it threatens gains made in recent

years.

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.)

might

be interested

to

a

return

as top Democrat on the House Energy and

Commerce

Committee following

Rep. Henry Waxman's (D-Calif.) decision

to

retire.

People on both sides

of

the shale drilling debate were scratching their heads yesterday trying

to

figure

out a new proposal on shale from President Obama. He didn t

mention it

in his speech, but in a fact

sheet released

as

part of

the

State

of the

Union rollout, he proposed Sustainable Shale

Gas Growth

Zones.

A group of senators is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider its proposed volume

levels for the amount of biofuels

that

must be blended by refiners into the nation s oil supply.

The National Council of Chain Restaurants has urged the EPA to further reduce the levels of corn ethanol

mandated under

the

Renewable Fuel Standard.

For all the debate over whether Washington should

lift

the nation s decades-old ban on exporting crude

oil,

the thing that

matters most may

be

the

price

at

the

pump.

Climate news:

The

Metropolitan Water

District, the Los Angeles-based utility for 19 million

people

in

Southern

California, said

it would

ask customers

to voluntarily

reduce water use

by

20 percent amid a

drought.

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A group

of

17 philanthropic groups including

the

Wallace Global Fund and John

Merck

Fund with a

combined asset base

of

about $1.8 billion has vowed

to

divest from fossil-fuel companies and invest in

clean-energy technology.

Seventy-six business groups, including the

U S

Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of

Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Gas Association, have agreed

to

dedicate necessary resources

to

vigorously

participate

in every facet

of

President Obama's effort

to

tackle climate change through

regulation, said Karen Harbert,

president of the

Chamber's

Institute for

21st Century Energy.

Petition filed by 16 green groups outlines a new basis for challenging the State Department's review

of

the

project,

as

well

as

hints

at

a future lawsuit.

The

meeting

of

nearly

200

governments

in Peru

later this

year

for

a

major

UN

climate

change

summit

must produce the first draft of a global deal

to

cut emissions, the country's environment minister says.

Former

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been tapped

to

be U.N. special envoy for cities and

climate change, sources

familiar with the situation

said on Thursday.

From 1999 through 2006,

methane

concentrations in

the

atmosphere stopped increasing after more

than a decade

of

strong growth. Then they took

off

again. It is, said Euan Nisbet,

of the

University of

London in an interview, a real puzzle.

Hundreds of drivers were reunited with their abandoned cars and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal ordered

state employees back to work Friday as the metro Atlanta region rebounded from a winter storm that

coated the area with snow and ice.

Life has never been easy

for just-hatched

Magellanic penguins,

but

climate change

is

making

it

worse,

according

to

a decades-long study

of the

largest breeding colony

of

the birds.

Environment Health news:

Living near hydraulic

fracturing

-

or

f racking - sites

may

increase

the

risk

of

some birth defects by

as

much

as 30 percent, a new study suggests. In the U.S., more than 15 million people now live within a

mile of a well.

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