By Allison Winter

E&E News: House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) yesterday called Vice President Dick Cheney’s role related to Endangered Species Act decisions “alarming” and said he intends to look into the matter.

Rahall said he wants to hold a hearing on Cheney’s involvement with Klamath River Basin decisions as part of an ongoing investigation into the Bush administration’s

By Alex Kaplun

E&E News: After months of speculation and internal jockeying, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday took the cover off the package of bills she intends to bring to the floor as part of her party’s energy independence agenda.

Pelosi listed the 10 committees she expects to contribute but said little about the timing or exact form of the legislation. House Majority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the bills may not necessarily be considered as one comprehensive bill, citing in particular

By Dan Berman

E&E News: Environmentalists hoping for big things from the Democratic Congress on wildlife and public lands protection were disappointed yesterday, when major amendments on Western rights of way and natural gas leasing were dropped at the last minute and the House defeated an attempt to limit hunting of polar bears.

By Lucy Kafanov

E&E News: Surfers on and off Capitol Hill urged Congress yesterday to keep their waves clean of pollution by forcing U.S. EPA to issue new beach water quality standards and help states fund cleanup efforts.

From surfer and former lifeguard Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) to the Surfrider Foundation’s Mara Dias, witnesses urged a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee panel to pass legislation that would improve oversight and double the amount of funding states get for water quality monitoring activities.

By Alex Kaplun

Greenwire: The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said today his panel would attempt to write a climate change bill this year that may approach the greenhouse gas reduction targets sought by environmental groups and liberal lawmakers.

As his committee began marking up a six-part energy package, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) said his climate legislation would aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions 60 to 80 percent by 2050 — toward high-end targets backed by Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and many Democratic presidential candidates.”We should set ambitious goals and targets

By Darren Samuelsohn

E&E News: The House yesterday came closer to acknowledging the growing scientific evidence linking human activity to climate change and endorsing “mandatory steps” to slow or stop the rise in U.S. heat-trapping pollution.

On a 153-274 vote, lawmakers rejected a climate change amendment

By Dan Berman

E&E News: The House last night voted to limit spending on new logging roads in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest and maintain prohibitions on offshore oil and gas drilling.

The votes took place during debate over a fiscal 2008 spending bill for the Interior Department, U.S. EPA and Forest Service, with a fight over

By Daniel Cusick

Greenwire: ATLANTA — Southern utilities played key roles in the effort to undermine plans in the Senate last week to require power companies to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy.

The fingerprints of the Tennessee Valley Authority and those of the Tennessee Valley Power Providers Association, whose members distribute TVA power to nearly 9 million customers in the South, were all over the successful effort to keep the so-called renewable portfolio standard (RPS) out of the sweeping Senate energy bill.