OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Energy chief sees room to work with GOP

MONIZ HAS HIGH HOPES: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Monday that he hopes President Obama and the GOP-controlled Congress can come to terms on a whole slate of issues before Obama’s term expires.

Moniz hopes to find Republican cooperation on government funding for infrastructure when he takes the administration’s case to lawmakers on Tuesday, as well as climate change and Iran, where he’s been a member of the team negotiating a nuclear deal.

{mosads}”I think key members on both sides of the aisle, from my interactions with them, suggest sometimes a skepticism, but even then, an openness to understanding what the deal is,” Moniz said at a Christian Science Monitor event on Monday. “We’re just going to have to finish a deal, get an agreement and explain it clearly to the public and to Congress, and I am convinced that there will be enough people who are willing to be objective.”

The sell might be a tad easier on infrastructure spending.

The administration has asked for billions of dollars in new spending on energy infrastructure projects around the country. While it’s impractical to think Congress might appropriate anything close to that before Obama’s term expires, Moniz said he thinks there could be some areas where Congress is willing to help out.

“We are willing to discuss with Congress how we might address these infrastructure needs,” he said.

Read more here. 

ON TAP TUESDAY I: Moniz will testify at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Tuesday on the infrastructure plan. Moniz travelled to Philadelphia with Vice President Biden last week to promote the plan. 

Read more on the administration’s “Quadrennial Energy Review,” as it’s called, here.

ON TAP TUESDAY II: The House Energy and Commerce Committee marks up a bill Tuesday that would delay the EPA’s climate rule until all court challenges are over and allow states to opt out if officials determine compliance would increase energy costs. The bill, which Democrats and the EPA strongly oppose, passed through subcommittee last week. 

Rest of Tuesday’s agenda …

The House Rules Committee will move to advance the Energy and Water appropriations bill to the House floor. 

Mexican government officials discuss renewable energy and climate change in Mexico at the Wilson Center. 

Officials from the Departments of Energy and Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s office speak at the National Hydropower Association’s Annual Conference. 

AROUND THE WEB:

The Oregonian investigates how people in the state fought the timber and chemical industries and lost. 

Opponents of Royal Dutch Shell’s offshore drilling plan in the Arctic Ocean protested Sunday in Seattle, where Shell’s storing its oil rig for planned drilling this summer, KING 5 reported. 

Solar power is about to become profitable in Japan, per Reuters. 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 

Check out Monday’s stories …

– SD delays Keystone XL permit 
– States: Comment period on EPA climate rule a ‘sham‘ 
– Senate Dems push back against bill banning EPA ‘secret science’ 
– Work begins on nation’s first offshore wind farm 
– Obama’s energy chief sees common ground with GOP 
– Industry poll: Majority supports ethanol mandate 
– Calif. drought cuts hydropower output 
– Nuclear industry pushing for changes to Obama’s climate rule
– Week ahead: Moniz takes energy infrastructure pitch to Congress  

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