Oil & Gas Stakeholders Drop Climate Change Case
Two fossil fuel industry groups dropped their attempts to intervene in a court case over climate change this week after failing to reach an agreement on a unified legal position on climate science, court filings show. The American Petroleum Institute (API) and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), prominent trade groups in the oil and gas industry, along with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), intervened in a federal case in which a group of teenagers sued the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights by causing climate change.
Senate Panel Questions Trump's EPA Pick Over Energy Ties
Democratic Senators quizzed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, over his energy industry ties, during a contentious confirmation hearing on Wednesday that was occasionally interrupted by protests. Pruitt, 48, is a climate change skeptic who sued the agency he intends to run more than a dozen times as Oklahoma's top prosecutor. He also chaired the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a group of conservative attorneys general that vehemently opposed a number of EPA regulations.
U.S. Senate set to Grill Trump's EPA Pick
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, will face tough questions from lawmakers on Wednesday about his ties to the energy industry, in what is expected to be another highly contentious confirmation hearing for Trump's Cabinet-in-waiting. Pruitt, 48, is a climate change skeptic who sued the agency he intends to run more than a dozen times as Oklahoma's top prosecutor, a strong signal he will aggressively carry out Trump's vows to slash EPA regulation to the core to encourage more U.S. oil and gas drilling and coal mining.
Tillerson's Nomination has U.S. Lawmakers Uneasy
President-elect Donald Trump announced Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson as his choice for U.S. secretary of state on Tuesday, despite concerns from lawmakers in both political parties over the oilman's ties to Russia. Tillerson's experience in diplomacy stems from making deals with foreign countries for Exxon, the world's largest energy company, and Trump praised him as a successful international dealmaker who leads a global operation. "He will be a forceful and clear…
Rubio Taps Outgoing Devon Exec for Energy Policy Advice
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has picked Devon Energy Corp co-founder Larry Nichols to help oversee his campaign's stance on energy issues, Rubio spokesman Jahan Wilcox said on Monday. Rubio, a U.S. Nichols, who stepped down as Devon's CEO in 2012 after more than 30 years but stayed on executive chairman, is set to fully retire this year from the Oklahoma-based oil producer. Like other powerful voices in the oil and gas industry, Nichols last year echoed calls to lift a 40-year-old federal ban on crude oil exports. Nichols is set to host a Feb. 26 fundraiser for Rubio in Oklahoma, a key U.S.
After Iran Deal, U.S. Firms Outside Looking In
Within hours of the announcement of an Iran nuclear deal early on Tuesday, lawyers around Washington were fielding calls from U.S. corporate clients eager to know what the 159-page deal would mean for their business prospects. In the near term, the answer for most of them is: not very much. U.S. companies face losing out to foreign competitors in Iran as they wait for signs that Tuesday's historic nuclear agreement is sticking and that U.S. lawmakers are willing to loosen long-standing restrictions on trade and investment, according to corporate lawyers and company executives.
Caterpillar CEO Joins ExxonMobil Board
Exxon Mobil Corporation announced today that its shareholders have elected Doug Oberhelman to its board of directors. Oberhelman is chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Caterpillar Inc. With the election of Oberhelman, the ExxonMobil board stands at 12 directors, 11 of whom are non-employee directors. Oberhelman was named CEO and chairman of Caterpillar’s board in 2010. Prior to that, he served as group president of various divisions within Caterpillar from 2002 to 2010, and was elected a Caterpillar vice president and chief financial officer in 1995. Oberhelman earned a B.A.
EPA Pressured to Tighten Ozone Standards
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing more stringent air quality standards for ground-level ozone, the main culprit in smog, the agency's chief said on Wednesday. Under deadline to release its proposal by Monday, the agency said it will seek a National Ambient Air Quality Standard between 65 and 70 parts per billion concentration of ozone, and take comment on standards within a 60-75 ppb range, EPA administrator Gina McCarthy said. Current standards, set under then-President George W. Bush in 2008, are set at 75 ppb. The EPA must finalize the rule by October 2015.
Green Groups See Need To Nudge Obama's 'Opening Bid' On Carbon Cuts
In large part, the wide-ranging reaction to President Barack Obama's signature effort to cut power plant carbon emissions could have been written months in advance. Key Republicans and many industrial groups decried it as a job-killing war on coal that would drive up power prices; environmentalists and many Democrats hailed it as a landmark measure making good on Obama's pledge to tackle climate change. Behind the bombast, however, more measured voices found a proposal that was not as severe as critics had feared nor as ambitious as proponents had hoped for.
Industry Urges Senate for Vessel Discharge Legislation
On March 13, a diverse coalition of 59 national and regional organizations representing a wide array of business, maritime and labor interests signed on to a letter to Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee leadership, Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) and Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD), thanking them for cosponsoring S. 2094, a bill that would establish a uniform national framework for the regulation of ballast water and other vessel discharges, and urging swift Committee consideration and approval. S. 2094, introduced on March 6 by Sens.
