Photograph by Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty Images

Workers lay the pipes for a gas pipeline outside the town of Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, on April 13, 2012. It is estimated that more than 500 trillion cubic feet of shale gas is contained in this stretch of rock that runs through parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia.

So many positive attributes have been ascribed to natural gas it’s a wonder that it hasn’t been touted as a cure for wrinkles and belly fat.

The U.S. gas bonanza will revive domestic manufacturing, lower carbon emissions, weaken OPEC, reduce the U.S. trade deficit, and turn landowners that sit atop the shale-rock formations where the fuel is found into overnight millionaires.

Senator Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Senate’s energy committee, will try to separate fact from fiction in two sessions on natural gas this week.

Executives from General Electric Co. and other companies told the Senate panel last week the U.S. needed to build more pipelines to keep up with the production, which grew by 27 percent from 2007-2011.

On Tuesday, the committee looks at how much gas there is in the U.S. and whether we can afford to ship some overseas. The Energy Department is reviewing 19 applications for export terminals. Dow Chemical Co. and other companies that use gas as a feedstock for their products have said more overseas sales could raise prices here, negating an advantage they have over global competitors.

Peter Huntsman, chief executive officer of the Huntsman Corp., a chemical company that has joined Dow in opposing broad exports, is expected to testify. Executives from Cheniere Energy, Inc., Sempra Energy, and the American Chemistry Council are also scheduled to appear.

As with any Old West elixir, some naysayers see negative side effects to the cure-all.

Fracking, the process that shoots a mixture of water, sand and chemicals deep underground to break apart the rock and free trapped gas, is a source of water and air pollution, according to groups including the Sierra Club. And while gas is less harmful to the environment than coal, it’s still a fossil fuel and generates carbon emissions all its own.

The issue of what broad gas development means to the environment is the subject of final session on Thursday. The Sierra Club’s Deb Nardone, who directs the groups Beyond Natural Gas campaign, will appear side-by-side representatives from gas producers like Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and Noble Energy, Inc.

Original post is Wyden Seeks the Whole Truth on Natural Gas by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on Nov. 28, 2012.

President Obama fills out his second-term Cabinet today by selecting Ernest Moniz to head the Energy Department and Gina McCarthy to run the Environmental Protection Agency. He’ll also tap Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation, to head the White House budget office, Bloomberg News reports.

Obama holds a Cabinet meeting this afternoon to lay out his plans for his second term. Topic A on the agenda may be the sequestration and how to implement $85 billion in budget cuts over the next seven months. Obama made calls over the weekend to lawmakers seeking bipartisan support for recasting the cuts while Republicans and Democrats traded blame for allowing the across-the-board reductions.

Topic B, closely related, may be discussions on averting a possible government shutdown. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Congress will take up legislation this week to fund the government beyond March 27.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen speaks at the National Association Assn for Business Economics policy conference in Washington today. Yellen signaled Feb. 11 that the Fed may keep interest rates near zero after bond-buying ends to maintain stimulus. CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker will also speak.

Vice President Joe Biden addresses an AIPAC policy conference. The FHFA releases it annual report on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae’s progress on meeting benchmarks for winding down operations. The Institute of International Bankers holds its annual Washington Conference. Speakers include Under Secretary of the Treasury Mary J. Miller, Fed Goverrnor Jerome Powell, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler and FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg.

Drugs to ease menopausal hot flashes from Depomed, Hisamitsu will be considered by FDA advisers today.

And Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Saudi Arabia. Yesterday, Kerry announced release of $250m of pledged $1b in aid for Egypt during visit to country as part of tour through Middle East

Original post is Washington Daybook: Cabinet Filling by Political Capital.

Photograph by Chris Thompson/SpaceX via Bloomberg

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.'s (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket takes off in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who splits his time between running the electric car-making Tesla Motors Inc. and rocket-making Space Exploration Technologies Corp., sees “good economic times ahead” for the U.S.

His Tesla, which received $465 million in federal loans in 2009 from the Obama administration to develop and build electric Model S sedans, had been cited as a “loser” company by Republican Mitt Romney in an Oct. 3 presidential debate — the same day Musk said the car-maker was making an “advance payment” for the federal loans.

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA for at least a dozen resupply flights to the International Space Station.

Post-election, Musk has shared his views about the economy going forward. He had declined to discuss Romney’s comments, didn’t publicly support either him or President Barack Obama and says he doesn’t expect “any significant impact” on either Tesla or SpaceX with the president’s re-election.

“The economy is improving quickly. This would happen no matter who is president,” Musk said. “I don’t think people appreciate that the president is like the captain of a huge boat with a tiny rudder.”

The slowly improving real estate market bodes well for continued economic recovery, he said.

“Now we’ve used up the housing stock and the housing industry is ramping up to normal employment levels. Housing, fully considered, is the biggest sector of the economy, so this will of course have a big positive effect on the economy,” he said. “Good times ahead!”

Balancing the budget must become Obama’s top priority, he said: “By this, I mean at least get the deficit under half a trillion. This needs to happen mostly through spending reductions, but will require some increase in taxes.”

It’s “obvious to everyone” that drastic cuts in government spending are necessary, he said, suggsting it wouldn’t be so bad if the automatic spending cuts that are part of the year end fiscal cliff took effect — given a choice between that and no cuts, he’d take the sequestration.

“The toughest challenge for the president will be cutting government spending,” Musk said. “Every special interest will lobby extremely hard to keep their funding, so fighting them will take incredible resolve.”

“This is the best thing about second-term presidents — they can afford to upset the system and not worry about re-election. President Obama cares about his legacy. He doesn’t want to leave office with the biggest deficit in history.”

Original post is Legacy-Conscious Obama Sure to Act on Deficit: Silicon Valley’s Musk by Political Capital.

“The whole world is pretty much going that way, becoming more energy efficient,” said Pichardo. “In the future, I’m really looking to get into geothermal and solar.”

Just how many opportunities there are for mid and low-skilled workers, like Pichardo, to find work in the renewable energy field hinges on today’s election. President Barack Obama has pledged to create five million green jobs, while falling short of stated goals. Republican nominee Mitt Romney has said Obama’s “‘green energy’ agenda has been nothing short of a disaster.”

“Opportunities for people who have had less education, less experience in the workforce, grow when there are pipelines into jobs through good training programs,” said Carol Zabin, a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Still, some critics say green jobs, at all skill levels, have stunted growth in other areas of the labor market because of the industry’s dependence on state and federal funding.

“When the government, through special favors, creates green jobs, it is actually taking resources away from other employment,” said Robert Bradley, chief executive officer of the Institute for Energy Research. “The problem is, you can’t see what you lost.”

Green career prospects are also entangled with federal and state policies and whether lawmakers will reach a final deal to address the so-called fiscal cliff that includes funding for energy-related tax incentives.

“Given this entanglement with policy, they are really susceptible to uncertainty,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “You have pending policy actions that will very much determine what the next few years look like,” in renewable energy.

Original post is Green Jobs Hinge on Today’s Vote by Political Capital.

Photograph by Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg

Semi-subermisible oil rigs and jackup shallow-water drilling units in the Gulf of Mexico.

Casino executive Sheldon Adelson, a $5 million contributor to Restore Our Future, the super-political action committee backing Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and a $30,800 donor to the Republican National Committee, which also supports Romney, has found another table to place his bets.

Adelson contributed $798,385 for radio advertisements aired by the New American Energy Opportunity Foundation, a nonprofit group headed by oil and gas executives that has called for expanded oil drilling offshore and on federal lands, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska.

The group has criticized President Barack Obama’s energy policies, and claims the admnistration is blocking an increase in oil and gas production. The association’s chairman, Scott Noble, held a press conference last month with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to push for increased energy production.

“At the very moment when we have the potential to dramatically increase our oil and gas production, the federal government is throwing up more restrictions to development,” the group says on its Web site.

Actually, total oil production on federal lands and offshore has gone up 12 percent since Obama became president, overall oil production in the U.S. is at its highest level since December 1996, and the country met 83 percent of its energy needs during the first six months of the year, on track for the highest percentage since 1991.

Adelson is the 25th richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He was 17th richest at the end of May, when Romney was paying a visit in Las Vegas to the casino magnate who had put $15 million into a super-PAC backing Romney-rival Gingrich’s campaign. Adelson also gave $7.5 million to the pro-Gingrich super-PAC Winning Our Future, as did his wife. Adelson and his wife combined have given $10 million to Restore Our Future.

Original post is Adelson Finds Another Avenue for Anti-Obama Campaign Spending by Political Capital.

Photograph by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney listens as President Barack Obama answers a question during a town hall style debate at Hofstra University on Oct. 16, 2012 in Hempstead, New York.

“This has not been Mr. Oil, or Mr. Coal or Mr. Gas,” Republican Mitt Romney said of President Barack Obama.

The Republican nominee for president, at the second of three debates with Obama, promised a policy of encouraging “more drilling, more permits and license” and permitting“that pipeline from Canada” to spur economic development. “This is about bringing good jobs back to America.” R0mney accused the president of restricting drilling on public lands.

“We’ve opened up public lands,” Obama said — more so than his predecessors (“and the previous president was an oil man.”)

“Suddenly you’re a big champion of coal,” Obama said, reminding Romney of his appearance once before a polluting coal-fired power plant. “Most importantly, we’re also starting to build cars that are more efficient…. That’s the strategy you need — an all of the above strategy.”

Permits on federal lands have been cut in half, Romney said.

“Not true, Governor Romney,” the president replied.

“Here’s what happened — you had a bunch of oil companies that had leases on public lands that they weren’t using,” Obama said. They were told, “you use it or you lose it.” So leases were taken away, he said, and production is up.

“Governor, what you’re saying is just not true,” Obama said.

“It’s absolutely true,” Romney said.

And so, 20 minutes into debate it’s this: You’re lying. No I’m not.

Original post is Obama: `Not True’ — Romney: `It’s Absolutely True’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Harry How/Getty Images

Head coach John Fox of the Denver Broncos reacts to a touchdown in front of Peyton Manning #18 to trail the San Diego Chargers 24-21 during the fourth quarter at Qualcomm Stadium on October 15, 2012 in San Diego, California. The Broncos won 35-24.

Epic comebacks are becoming old hat.

Last week, the San Francisco Giants baseball club lost two games at home before winning three on the road to take a playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds. On Friday, The St. Louis Cardinals were down to their last strike — twice — before staging a rally in the ninth inning to stun the Washington Nationals. And last night, the Denver Broncos football team overcame a 24-0 deficit at halftime to beat the San Diego Chargers 35-24.

Republican Mitt Romney, who trailed badly in most polls before his strong debate performance in Denver on Oct. 3, has drawn almost even with President Barack Obama since then. He hopes to continue the streak tonight at 9 pm EDT when the men face off again at Hofstra University in New York. Romney has closed to within four points of Obama among likely voters in Pennsylvania, narrowing a 12-point gap less than a month ago, according to a Quinnipiac University poll out today.

Energy prices also are staging a comeback, with gasoline prices once again approaching $4 a gallon in the Washington area. The cost of living in the U.S. probably rose in September for a second month as a jump in energy expenses overshadowed smaller gains in other goods and services, economists said before a report from the Labor Department due out this morning.

Bloomberg Government is hosting a breakfast seminar on the “Political Realities of Energy,” exploring the effect of elections on the energy landscape. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will announce an investment for the Northeast U.S. to “help advance the nation’s biofuels industry toward developing regional, renewable energy markets, generating rural jobs, and decreasing America’s dependence on foreign oil” at 10:30 a.m.

Also today, Vice President Joe Biden attends funeral services for the late Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, longtime former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to President Richard Nixon in a historic landslide 40 years ago, has moved into hospice care near his home in South Dakota, his family said Monday.

“He’s coming to the end of his life,” his daughter, Ann McGovern, told The Associated Press. She declined to elaborate but noted that her 90-year-old father has suffered several health problems in the last year.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Comebacks by Political Capital.

Photograph by Thomas D. Mcavoy

The Energy Information Administration said today households that use heating oil to fend off winter’s chill can expect to pay record amounts for the fuel.

As gasoline prices remain stubbornly high even after the summer driving season, consumers in some states are facing another hit to their pocketbooks: Higher home heating costs.

The Energy Information Administration, which tracks and analyzes energy data for the U.S., said today households that use heating oil to fend off winter’s chill can expect to pay record amounts for the fuel. Natural gas prices also are expected to increase.

“It is going to be colder than last year and as a result of that, heating bills are going to be higher,” Adam Sieminski, administrator of the EIA, said in Washington today.

Energy has been a subset of the broader economic themes shaping the presidential race so far, and conceivably higher costs could be a drag on President Barack Obama’s chances if it causes additional economic anxiety in homeowners.

Still, most of the pain, if predictions hold true, would come as temperatures dip in December, Janurary and February. The election is Nov. 6.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney accuses Obama of not doing enough to promote domestic oil and gas production. Obama has countered by saying the U.S. was drilling more oil and natural gas than it had in years.

The EIA also had some good news. Gas prices are expected to decline in 2013.

They stood at $3.81 yesterday, about 40 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA’s daily fuel gauge report. The EIA projects gas to average $3.44 per gallon in 2013, as more oil comes on the market. By the time the next summer driving season starts in May, the election will be far beyond the rear-view mirror.

See the full report at Bloomberg.com.

Original post is Heating Costs Rise — Thermometer Holding Past Nov. 6? by Political Capital.

Photograph by Tim Rue/Bloomberg

The Tesla Motors Inc.'s Model X vehicle at its unveiling in Hawthorne, California.

In last night’s debate, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney singled out four recipients of U.S. Energy Department aid as he lumped such companies together as “losers.”

Romney was essentially repeating a refrain he’d used last week at a campaign event in Pennsylvania, except that in the debate, he said a “friend” had used the term “losers.”

Romney was criticizing a George W. Bush-era program intended to spur the development of greener cars and energy sources. Ford Motor Co., the only major U.S. automaker that didn’t receive a federal bailout, and Nissan Motor Co., which hasn’t had an unprofitable quarter since 2010, received most of the money from the same program that funded Tesla Motors Inc. and Fisker Automotive Inc., two companies Romney named.

Tesla said yesterday, just hours before the debate, that it would begin repaying the U.S. government early for its $465 million loan.

“Don’t forget, you put $90 billion, like 50 years’ worth of breaks, into — into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tesla and Ener1,” Romney said as he attacked Obama’s tax policies. “I mean, I had a friend who said you don’t just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers, all right? So this… is not the kind of policy you want to have if you want to get America energy secure.”

Does that make Ford and Nissan losers by default?

Nissan and Ford wouldn’t touch that question directly.

“I never heard the presidential candidate use the word Nissan,” spokesman David Reuter said.

“Our ’One Ford Plan’ is working,” said Ford spokeswoman Christin Baker. “The company has had 12 consecutive profitable quarters. Our ongoing introduction of new products is leading in quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design and value.”

But it’s got to sting for two establishment companies to be lumped together with two failed enterprises and two start-ups.

The startups – Tesla and Fisker – wouldn’t consider themselves losers either. In addition to its loan announcement, Tesla said yesterday it expects to be cash-flow positive by the end of November with a quarterly profit in 2013. Fisker, which was cut off from drawing down more of its loan last year after failing to meet milestones, just raised more than $100 million from private investors to keep developing a second car.

Ford, which got $5.6 billion in loans, has been trumpeting its new C-Max, which will only come in hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric versions in the U.S. The company used U.S. money to develop its EcoBoost engine, part of its strategy for increasing  fuel efficiency in its cars and trucks. Customers can even buy the engine in the F-150, the best-selling passenger vehicle in country.

While Romney complained about Obama being too generous with taxpayer money for green energy, companies including Chrysler LLC have complained about the administration not giving out billions of dollars it could have lent. Chrysler and General Motors Co. both pulled their loan applications after delays in decisions from regulators. Start-ups Bright Automotive Inc. and Carbon Motors Corp. complained that their applications had fallen victim to politics earlier this year after the Energy Department loan programs became a political football following Solyndra’s bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, Romney should be familiar with failed automakers from his youth when dad George was CEO of American Motors Corp.

Not familiar with that company’s cars?

That’s because it was absorbed by Chrysler a quarter century ago.

An automotive loser, so to speak.

Written with Alan Ohnsman

Original post is Romney’s `Losers’ Overlook Ford, Nissan — and Tesla Repaying by Political Capital.

Photograph by Paul Hilton/Bloomberg

A farmer with her pigs in Shueng Shui, Hong Kong.

The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t just guarding American land, air and water, it’s looking out for Jakarta’s air.

House Republicans raised the issue at a hearing today where they said the agency spent more than $21 million on projects such as training Polish municipalities on landfill gas, studying swine manure in China, and the “Breathe Easy Jakarta” initiative to improve indoor-air quality in Indonesia’s capital.

“These projects may be perfectly fine, but when we have this kind of debt, we need to curtail them,” Representative Ed Whitfield of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee on Energy and Power of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at the hearing. Whitfield pushed legislation at the meeting to prohibit the international grants.

The EPA said that its spending on projects outside the U.S. accounted for less than 1 percent of the agency’s grant budget in the past four years, and that these types of programs date back to 1972.

Original post is Republicans Question EPA Spending on Jakarta’s Air, China’s Cows by Political Capital.