4 item(s) were returned.
On September 16th, 2015, OurEnergyPolicy.org (OEP) hosted a panel event moderated by Mark Drajem of Bloomberg News on the EPA’s ozone rule and the energy sector at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. EPA is expected to announce a new standard for ground-level ozone, a smog-forming pollutant. Most believe they will reduce the existing standard from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 65 or 70 ppb by 2025. According to EPA, this would prevent 4,200 premature deaths, between 1,400 and 4,300 asthma-related emergency room visits, and between 320,000 and 960,000 annual asthma attacks in children. The very spirited discussion… [more]
View Insight
Chair, Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Environment & Climate Change, U.S. House of Representatives
Co-Chair, Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition
Recently, House Republicans passed H.R. 1734, the so called Improving Coal Combustion Residuals Regulation Act of 2015, a direct attack on public health and the environment. This bill undermines important health protections in EPA’s final coal ash rule from last December by delaying implementation of coal ash disposal restrictions, letting utilities avoid publicly posting contamination data and allowing companies to continue dumping coal ash into leaking surface impounds for as many as eight years after contamination is documented. It enables harmful substances to remain in contact with aquifers, wetlands, and in seismic impact zones with serious implications for cleanup requirements,… [more]
View Insight
Vice President, Research & Policy Analysis and Chief Economist
America's Natural Gas Alliance
The Obama administration recently announced forthcoming standards for methane emissions from new and modified oil and gas production sources, despite saying “voluntary efforts to reduce emissions in a comprehensive and transparent manner hold the potential to realize significant reductions in a quick, flexible, cost-effective way.” The natural gas industry has already dramatically reduced methane emissions even as production and use have soared. New regulations will take too much time and yield too few benefits, compared with a collaborative approach. Because methane is the product we sell there is great motivation to capture as much as possible. Innovations have led to… [more]
View Insight
Vice President, US Retail Regulatory Strategy
National Grid, US
We hear about the promise of transforming America’s infrastructure every day. But if we’re going to capitalize on that promise, we need to reverse the 20-year trend of underinvestment in energy networks. Greater overall resiliency, reliability and innovation come with a sizeable price tag; it is estimated that U.S. energy infrastructure needs $2.5 trillion in investment by 2035. If we don’t meet this challenge, the growing limitations of our current system threaten to derail progress toward our long-term energy sustainability and security goals. We either invest now, or pay that much more later. To secure the necessary funding for energy infrastructure… [more]
View Insight