Legislative Activity
This Week’s Hearings:
- Tuesday, July 23: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the FAIR Act of 2013 (S. 1273), a bill to provide for additional federal-state royalty revenue sharing from energy development. The House Natural Resources Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the status of the Stream Buffer Zone Rule and the economic impacts on 22 coal-producing states.
- Tuesday, July 23 through Wednesday, July 24: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold oversight hearings to solicit stakeholder input on the Renewable Fuels Standard.
- Wednesday, July 24: House Science Subcommittees will host a joint hearing on “Lessons Learned: EPA’s Investigations of Hydraulic Fracturing.” A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Department of Energy Oversight: What Is Necessary to Improve Project Management and Mission Performance?”
Regulatory Activity
Offshore Drilling
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for future lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico’s Western Planning Area, for Lease Sale 238 (off Texas and Louisiana in 2014), Lease Sale 246 (in 2015), and Lease Sale 248 (in 2016). Public scoping meetings will be held in Galveston, Texas on August 6 and in New Orleans, Louisiana on August 8.
TRIA
Comments on the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets report to Congress on the long-term availability and affordability of insurance for terrorism risk are due by September 16.
FERC/California
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will host a staff technical conference in Sacramento on July 31 regarding the California Independent System Operator Corporation’s proposal to implement an interim flexible capacity and local reliability resource retention mechanism in the State’s wholesale electrical market.
