John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, testified Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing, “HomeStar: Job Creation Through Home Energy Retrofits.” From his testimony (available here):

Along with recoveries in other parts of the domestic economy as well as the global economy, a sustainable upturn in the housing sector will be a key ingredient for getting manufacturing back on track, expanding production and creating high-paying jobs. In fact, NAM estimates that if a healthy rebound in housing takes place over the next few years (2010-2013), it likely will create 128,000 manufacturing jobs in the industries connected to this sector.

As currently drafted, the HomeStar proposal would spur consumer demand for the purchase and installation of energy-efficient products and building materials by providing significant and immediate rebates for home energy-efficiency retrofits. In addition to promoting residential energy efficiency, the program will quickly create jobs in the manufacturing, distribution and sale of energy-efficient products.

Larry Laseter, president of the Masco Corporation subsidiary WellHome, testified (statement here), and the company sent out a news release beforehand.

“The HOME STAR program will get our nation’s skilled construction force working again, benefit homeowners coast to coast and from all socio-economic backgrounds through comfort and energy efficiency improvements to their homes, and result in long-term energy and environmental gains. We urge Congress to expedite approval of this program so that Americans can get back to work.

Also on the panel was Mike Thaman, chairman and CEO of Owens Corning. His testimony is here. Earlier this month, reacting to comments by President Obama, Owens Corning issued a news release in support of the HomeStar program, “Owens Corning Supports President Obama’s HOMESTAR Program to Create U.S. Jobs and Improve Energy Efficiency in America’s Homes,” in which Thaman commented:

The current condition of the U.S. housing market provides a unique opportunity to take advantage of available product and skilled worker capacity to get this done. We will work to support the President’s HOMESTAR initiative and its many benefits.

The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press covered the hearing, “Welch’s energy efficiency program faces GOP skepticism.”

Quin Hillyer of The Washington Times comments on the should-be-higher profile case of Comer v. Murphy Oil U.S.A., in a column, “No butterfly caused Katrina“:

A case called Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, winding its way through federal courts, offers leftists a perfect storm of fantasy fulfillment. Yet their fantasy balloons may well get popped. If the case is decided correctly, it could strike separate blows against both lawsuit abuse and global-warming alarmists, including those at the radicalized Environmental Protection Agency. …

This is the class-action lawsuit in which Mississippi residents sued  150 energy companies, chemical manufacturers and other emitters of greenhouse gases, claiming the emissions increased global warming, which made Hurricane Katrina so much more powerful and damaging to property. Compensate us!

Hillyer writes:

Remember the theory of the “butterfly effect,” whereby the flap of an insect’s wings in Brazil somehow could cause a tornado in Texas? In essence, the Comer theory amounts to sort of a butterfly effect writ extra-large. The problem with the butterfly effect is that a gazillion other creatures are flapping their wings all over the world, so it is literally impossible ever to prove a cause-and-effect relationship between airflows in Brazil and Texas or between Bolivia and Tennessee.

The trial judge, U.S. District Judge Louis Girola, Jr., dismissed the lawsuit because it sought to use the courts to balance complicated economic, environmental and international interests. These interests are constitutionally the domain of the political branches of government, not the courts. Unfortunately, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit reversed, allowing the case to proceed. Now the full court will now consider the litigation en banc. Hillyer:

Remember, this first fight involves mere standing to sue, not the merits of the global-warming, butterfly-effect claims. But if it proceeds to trial, literally every one of us who uses energy could be legally liable for some degree of Katrina’s devastation. Energy-company shareholders, including retirees whose pension funds rely on stock in those companies, would see their savings diminished, while consumers surely would pay vastly higher prices if the millions of people who suffered damages in Katrina could lay claims for damages.

Hillyer cites an amicus brief filed in the litigation by the American Farm Bureau Federation, joined by the National Association of Manufacturers, the the American Tort Reform Association. The brief and case summary is available at the NAM’s Manufacturing Law Center’s entry on Comer, here.

John Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, will testify this morning, 10 a.m., at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearing, “HomeStar: Job Creation Through Home Energy Retrofits.”

The Subcommittee on Energy and Environment will hold a hearing entitled “HomeStar: Job Creation Through Home Energy Retrofits” on Thursday, March 18, 2010, in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building. This hearing will examine proposed legislation to incentivize home energy retrofits and increase employment in the construction and related sectors.

INVITED WITNESSES:

•The Honorable Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy
•Larry Laseter, President, Masco Home Services
•The Honorable John Engler, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Manufacturers
•Michael Thaman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Owens Corning
•Christopher A.S. Pratt, Vice President, Construction and Development Services, LLC

The NAM Vice President Dorothy Coleman issued a statement on the HomeStar program on March 3.

Manufacturers are encouraged by President Obama’s comments yesterday on the Home Star Program and its potential to create jobs at a crucial time in our country. We believe this is a step in the right direction. At the same time, we think there is room for improving the proposal in ways that would result in the creation of even more manufacturing, construction and retail jobs.

We look forward to working with the Administration and Congress to advance this important program.

Prominent play on the front of the Metro section in today’s Washington Post, “Virginia leaders express interest in offshore drilling“:

RICHMOND — Never has the political climate in Virginia so favored offshore drilling.

Most Virginia leaders — regardless of their political party — have expressed interest in joining Alaska, Texas, Louisiana and other states in setting up offshore platforms to drill for oil and natural gas.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and fellow elected Republicans strongly back the proposal, as do most members of the state’s congressional delegation, including both U.S. senators, who are Democrats.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports, “Drilling report’s conclusions disappoint both sides:

With its chief proponent saying he is in no hurry, the push to open Florida waters to oil and gas drilling inched past another milestone Monday when a House panel was briefed on a report by a Florida think tank.

House Speaker-designate Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, said he was pleased with the report, which was prepared by the Collins Center and the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida.

“It was fascinating how much of it jibed with what we’ve been hearing in testimony from the experts,” Cannon said.

Cannon: “I’m pleased with the report.” Newspaper: “Both sides disappointed.”

The report concludes that Gulf of Mexico oil production would produce $80 million to $190 million annually in revenue to the state, creating 2,000 to 5,000 jobs.

A recent article in Newsweek provides the big picture, or deep picture, as the case may be. From “Journey to the Center of the Earth“:

From the window of a helicopter 1,500 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, oil platforms look like Tinkertoys in a swimming pool. Dozens dot the horizon stretching south from New Orleans and continuing out as the water deepens and turns a darker blue. Then, about 50 miles offshore, the platforms stop, and for the next hundred miles there’s nothing. This is the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, where the ocean floor is 8,000 feet down and covered in a heavy layer of muck. Below that is an ancient salt bed several miles thick, and hidden under that, trapped tens of thousands of feet down, there’s oil—billions and billions of barrels of it. And it’s all in U.S. waters.

The article uses Chevron’s Tahiti platform (pictured above) as the base of reporting. Good story, tremendous prospects.

If only …

From The Washington Examiner, “The Obama Moratorium: No offshore drilling while he’s in office”

The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday. Which means that no new oil and gas leases will be approved during President Obama’s term even though two –thirds of the American public supports such activity, according to a December 2009 Rasmussen poll.

Sixty percent also believe that gas and oil prices will drop if the government allows offshore drilling, opening up an estimate 14 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas

The National Association of Manufacturers has joined a broad group of supporters of nuclear power in urging Congress to maintain the Yucca Mountain site as a viable repository for nuclear waste.

From the news release, “Eighteen Organizations Urge Continued Funding for Yucca Mountain; Ask for Release of Documents on Proposed Termination“:

WASHINGTON, March 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – A coalition of leading national and regional organizations — representing energy and individual taxpayers; state elected and regulatory officials; communities and energy-related businesses — expressed vigorous support for the continuation of the Yucca Mountain repository program in letters to key Congressional appropriators.  The group urged release of all documents associated with the Obama Administration’s decision to cancel the program while advocating “immediate suspension” of payments to the Nuclear Waste Fund in the event the U.S. Congress agrees to implement the Department’s termination request.

“This proposed action will unnecessarily leave the United States with no path forward or operative ‘Plan B’ for the Nation’s nuclear waste, violate the provisions of the bipartisanly-enacted Nuclear Waste Policy Act, represent unjustified intrusion into an ongoing review by the NRC, contradicting the President’s Memorandum on Scientific Integrity; result in wholly inadequate funding to preserve the integrity of the taxpayers’ $10 billion investment; and continue to siphon approximately $770 million annually from electricity consumers in 41 states,” the organizations said in letters to Senate and House leaders of the energy and water development appropriations subcommittees.

The letter is available here, via the Sustainable Fuel Cycle Task Force.

From the governor’s office, a news release, “Governor McDonnell Signs Legislation Positioning Virginia to Become the “Energy Capital of the East Coast”

RICHMOND – Governor Bob McDonnell was joined by a bipartisan group of delegates and senators this afternoon as he signed legislation that will allocate 80% of future offshore royalties and revenues to transportation and the remaining 20% to the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, which researches and develops renewable energy solutions.  HB 756, a key piece of the Governor’s ‘Jobs and Opportunities’ Agenda, will allocate 80% of future offshore royalties and revenues to transportation (70% to Transportation Trust Fund and 10% to local transportation projects) and the remaining 20% to the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium, which researches and develops renewable energy solutions.  Equally important, HB 787 provides a clear statement of the Commonwealth in support of oil and natural gas exploration, development, and production 50 miles or more off Virginia’s coast.  The Governor and members of his administration have been in steady communication with United States Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar expressing strong support for keeping the offshore lease sale on schedule for 2011.  These pieces of legislation underscore those efforts and provide valuable evidence of Virginia’s readiness to lead on offshore exploration and drilling.

While signing the legislation, Governor McDonnell remarked, “These key pieces of legislation are necessary to help Virginia become the ‘Energy Capital of the East Coast.’  Virginians understand that this common–sense policy will lead to millions of dollars in revenue as well as thousands of new jobs.  Revenue gained from offshore exploration will go directly to two key areas–transportation and energy research and development.  Millions of dollars will go towards improving our transportation system that will ensure the free flow of commerce and attract further business investments in the Commonwealth.  By investing 20% in renewable energy research and production we will ensure that energy sources of the future, such as wind and biofuels, are made more commercially practicable.”

• HB756: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi–bin/legp504.exe?ses=101&typ=bil&val=HB756
• HB787: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi–bin/legp504.exe?ses=101&typ=bil&val=HB787

News coverage…

AP, “Va. gov McDonnell signs offshore energy bills”

WTVR, “McDonnell signs offshore drilling bills”

From Slate.com, boiling down Bloomberg, “BP Spends Billions To Hunt for Oil off Brazil“:

BP, the largest oil and gas company in Europe, has finalized a deal to fork over $7 billion in cash for a chunk of Devon Energy Corp.’s assets. BP will buy U.S. deepwater sites in the Gulf of Mexico, sites in Azerbeijan and, most notably, 10 sites off the coast of Brazil, home to some of the largest deepwater oil fields in the world. “This strategic opportunity fits well with BP’s operating strengths and key interests around the world,” BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward told Bloomberg. “As well as giving us a broad portfolio of assets in the exciting Brazilian deepwater, it will strengthen out position in the Gulf of Mexico, enhance our interests in Azerbaijan and enable us to progress the development of Canadian assets.” As part of the deal, Devon will take a 50 percent stake in BP’s Kirby oil sands in Alberta, Canada.

Wall Street Journal editorial, “An Energy Head Fake“:

President Obama used his January State of the Union speech to promise “a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants” and “new offshore areas for oil and gas development.” Judging by its recent decisions, we’d say his Cabinet hasn’t received the memo.

Congress’s ban on offshore drilling expired in September 2008, and a Bush Administration plan for leasing the energy-rich Outer Continental Shelf was due to begin this year. Yet within a month of taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar halted leasing by extending the public comment period by six months. When that period ended last September, Interior said it would take “several weeks” to analyze the results. It has yet to release a summary.

• Deseret News, “Grouse decision could dampen oil drilling“
• Heritage Foundation, The Foundry blog, “Government Picks Wind as Winner, Oil and Natural Gas as Losers“
• Oil and Gas Journal, “Salazar defends proposed increased costs for producers“

Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency administrator, speaking at the National Press Club Monday criticized citizens who disagree with the power grab(s) being undertaken by the agency to regulate greenhouse gases. Jackson sends an army of straw-men arguments marching into a very important debate about science, our economy, and the authority of an executive branch agency to set policy.

As you might expect, we’re running into the same old tired arguments.

Once again industry and lobbyists are trying to convince us that changes will be absolutely impossible. Once again alarmists are claiming this will be the death knell of our economy. Once again they are telling us we have to choose: Economy? Or environment?

Most drastically, we are seeing efforts to further delay EPA action to reduce greenhouse gases.

This is happening despite the overwhelming science on the dangers of climate change…despite the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision that EPA must use the Clean Air Act to reduce the proven threat of greenhouse gases…and despite the fact that leaving this problem for our children to solve is an act of breathtaking negligence.

Yeah, breathtaking. We get it.

Let’s take a look at Jackson’s claims.

1. “Once again industry and lobbyists are trying to convince us that changes will be absolutely impossible.” Really? Who’s arguing that? Here is a paragraph from the National Association of Manufacturers’ policy on climate change:

The NAM understands the fundamental importance of protecting the environment. Our member companies are committed to greater environmental sustainability, including energy efficiency and conservation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with global climate change. We know we cannot solve the climate change issue alone. The U.S. Congress must engage in a thorough and transparent deliberative process for establishing federal climate change policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while maintaining a competitive level playing field for U.S. companies in the global marketplace.

The policy then lists a set of principles for federal action on climate, stating that policies must be equitable and economywide in scope, include all sectors and recognize the different competitive environments and abilities of sectors. The EPA does not have the authority to accomplish this balancing under the Clean Air Act.

2. “Once again alarmists are claiming this will be the death knell of our economy. Once again they are telling us we have to choose: Economy? Or environment?” Ah, alarmists. Because with unemployment near 10 percent amid inconsistent signs of a recovery, and the United States competing in a global economy, anyone who expresses concerns about a vast new regulatory regime imposing new costs on the energy sector, manufacturers, and transportation is an “alarmist.” Here is a link to a study conducted for the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Council for Capital Formation on the effects of the Waxman-Markey legislation, including a loss of $2 trillion to $3 trillion in economic growth and two million jobs over the 18 years of the bill.

3. “Most drastically, we are seeing efforts to further delay EPA action to reduce greenhouse gases.” Thank goodness for these “most drastic” efforts, also known as legislation. You see, it’s not only industry and lobbyists and citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights in calling for a delay in the EPA’s unprecedented power grab. It’s Senators, like Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). And Representatives like Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO).

4. “This is happening despite the overwhelming science on the dangers of climate change.” That’s a point of some contention, isn’t it? We see scandal after scandal undermining the credibility of the most prominent scientific polemicists on climate change. (From Iain Murray at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “Climategate: This Time It’s NASA,” and “The Real Climate Confusion.”)

5. “despite the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision that EPA must use the Clean Air Act to reduce the proven threat of greenhouse gases…” Advocates  often simplify the court’s decision in Massachusett v. EPA as ordering the agency to regulate greenhouse gases. It’s not that direct. The court ruled that the EPA did have the authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases and is required by the Act to base the decision on a consideration of “whether greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change.” In any case, that’s a statutory authority that Congress, as the policymaking branch of government, can remove or modify as it wishes.

6. “and despite the fact that leaving this problem for our children to solve is an act of breathtaking negligence.” Unlike, say, the federal debt? In any case, Administrator Jackson is using the tired political tactic of invoking “the children,” in this case on behalf of a false choice. Opposing the Obama  EPA’s power grab, arguing against the agency’s attempt remake and burden the U.S. economy over the wishes of the public and policymakers does not mean “leaving this problem for our children to solve.” It means accurately identifying the problem, relying on our elected policymakers to address the issue through the political process, avoiding Pyrrhic victories that burn down our economy, and using the best of technological advances to improve efficiency and energy conservation.

What’s breathtaking about that?

Roll Call, “ Kerry Sparks Fight on Climate“:

In an already challenging election year for the majority, Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) rush to pass a climate change bill has many Democrats scratching their heads and charging that their 2004 presidential nominee could further imperil vulnerable Members this fall.

Climate change had been considered all but dead this year, and Senate Democrats have little appetite to take up the controversial issue after the beating that they have endured over their as-yet-unfinished health care reform efforts.

The Hill, “Sen. Kerry lobbies for climate compromise; actual bill to come“:

The three senators writing compromise climate legislation are lobbying business groups in hopes of winning their support for the effort. One obstacle: the absence of an actual bill…[snip]

As he tries to sell the legislation, Kerry is de-emphasizing its relation to climate change.

“What we are talking about is a jobs bill. It is not a climate bill. It is a jobs bill, and it is a clean air bill. It is a national security, energy independence bill,” he told reporters in the Capitol this week.

A national security, energy independence bill? Really?

From The Anchorage Daily News, “Lieberman to Murkowski: Forget ANWR drilling“:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Wednesday that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling might be the price of her swing vote in favor of energy and climate legislation. But The Hill reports today that Sen. Joe Lieberman — a longtime opponent of ANWR drilling — says ANWR drilling would be a “deal breaker” in his attempt to craft a bipartisan climate bill.

Salt Lake City Tribune, “Noel seeks to protect power companies from emissions lawsuits“:

Power companies would be immune from lawsuits resulting from their greenhouse gas emissions under a bill sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, that passed the House on Tuesday.

Noel said he knows of two lawsuits that have been filed against power companies alleging they are contributing to climate change and, he said, Utah might be vulnerable to such lawsuits because so much of its power comes from fossil fuel.

“We need not make Utah fertile ground for future litigation of this type,” Noel said. “It’s only going to hurt our citizens.”

The vote was 49-19.

H.B. 395 is NOT just limited to power companies. As the text states:

A person residing or doing business in this state may not be held liable for damage or injury to another arising out of any actual or potential effect on climate caused by contributions to emissions of greenhouse gases unless it can be proved by clear and convincing evidence that the person has:

a) violated an enforceable statutory limitation or restriction against emissions of a specific greenhouse gas originating within this state; or (b) violated the express terms of a valid, enforceable operating, air, or other permit issued by a state or federal regulatory agency that has jurisdiction over the greenhouse gas emissions of the person or business.

The need to expand the protections beyond utilities is clear. In an earlier story from The Deseret News, “Utah lawmaker Mike Noel targets global warming lawsuits,” Rep. Noel mentions the Comer v. Murphy Oil Co. litigation, in which Mississippi property owners sued 150 oil companies, other energy producers and manufacturing companies under the theory that their emissions exacerbated Hurricane Katrina. (See our post from Thursday.)

Liability protections of this kind are not uncommon. State legislatures have passed laws to preclude suits against fast-food companies for causing obesity and against gun manufacturers for acts committed by criminals.