Video: Paul Gigot, Wall Street Journal.  Is the Administration rethinking the ban on oil exports?

Calgary Herald.  Mexico's state-run oil company is battling a fire at a pipeline north of Mexico City….

Will John Podesta and a Left Wing Billionaire Control White House Energy Policy From Now On?

(See our earlier, related essays, editorials and reports: "Enviro – Industrial – Governmental Cabal") 

The Senate Energy and Natural Res.Ron Wyden, confirmation hearings, Christopher Smith, Photo by Dave Harbour Committee today favorably reported two nominees to fill positions at the Department of Energy and one nominee to the Department of the Interior.

Chairman Ron Wyden (NGP Photo), D-Ore., expressed his support for all three nominees.

“I believe all three of these nominees are highly qualified for the positions to which they’ve been nominated, based on their education, training and experience,” Wyden said.

Ron Wyden, confirmation hearings, Christopher Smith, Photo by Dave HarbourThe committee passed the following nominations:

 

  • Steven P. Croley to be the General Counsel of the Department of Energy
  • Christopher A. Smith (NGP Photo) to be an Assistant Secretary of Energy (for Fossil Energy)
  • Esther P. Kia’aina to be an Assistant Secretary of the Interior (for Insular Areas)

The nominations were agreed to by a voice vote and now go to the full Senate. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., asked to be recorded as voting against Smith’s nomination.  (Comment: Stabenow's opposition is reason for optimism that an executive with Smith's background and competence has been confirmed.  -dh)

Free Beacon by Matthew Continetti.  … Podesta is joining the administration for one year as White House counselor specializing in energy policy. And despite the fact that he has done more than any other unelected official to shape the policies of cap-and-trade and green energy subsidies, and to employ and place the talent that has attempted to implement those policies during the Obama presidency, the White House assures us that he will never, never have any say in whether the Keystone Pipeline, slow-walked by this president for years, is approved or denied.

…the press, as usual, has missed the real story. It is this: Podesta is the vehicle through which a radical billionaire’s energy policies are about to enter the Oval Office. I am speaking of Tom Steyer, the incredibly wealthy hedge fund manager who retired from his firm, Farallon Capital Management, in the fall of 2012 for a second career in political activism. 

Today's relevant links from Office of the Federal Coordinator, Alaska Gas Pipeline.