The House of Representatives last week voted to block new EPA regulations protecting streams and requiring restoration of mountains damaged by coal mining. The vote, 235-188, means the measure now goes to the Senate. President Obama has vowed to veto the bill.

The administration said the new rules are needed to protect streams from coal-mining damage. But Republicans said the rules would mean the end of tens of thousands of coal industry jobs at a time when the industry is already under pressure from low natural gas prices and increased emissions rules.

“West Virginia is blessed to be abundant in natural resources,” said Republican Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia. “Unfortunately, the president is intent on destroying coal as a domestic energy source.”

More: The Associated Press

Obama to Push for Changes in Federal Land Energy Use

The Obama administration on Friday announced a moratorium on new coal leases on federally managed land after the president pledged in his final State of the Union speech to change the way federal lands are used for fossil fuel development to “accelerate the transition away from dirty energy.”

The moratorium was announced by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who said it was time to re-examine the coal-leasing program. “It is abundantly clear that times are different in the energy sector now than they were 30 years ago,” she said.

The move won plaudits from clean energy advocates. “It’s time to not only reform our fossil fuel leasing program; we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground,” said Erich Pica of Friends of the Earth.

More: The Washington Post; InsideClimate News

Solar, Wind Touted in State of the Union

President Obama, in his final State of the Union address, bragged on the progress the country has made in building out solar and wind facilities in the effort to cut emissions.

“Listen,” he said, “seven years ago, we made the single biggest investment in clean energy in our history. Here are the results. In fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power. On rooftops from Arizona to New York, solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year on their energy bills and employs more Americans than coal — in jobs that pay better than average.”

“We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to generate and store their own energy — something, by the way, that environmentalists and Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. And meanwhile, we’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly 60% and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.

“Gas under $2 a gallon ain’t bad either.”

More: State of the Union transcript

House Committee Approves Bill for Nuclear Energy Research

A House committee has approved a bill that will direct research and development money toward nuclear energy. The bill, approved by the Science, Space and Technology Committee, directs the Department of Energy to set nuclear energy research as a priority.

While calling for the use of resources of national labs, such as use of supercomputers, to help in the research, the bill also calls for the design and construction of an experimental reactor within the next 10 years.

“Strategic investments in advanced nuclear reactor technology should play a much more meaningful role in reducing global emissions,” said Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) during a hearing last week.

More: The Hill

Environmental Groups Call for FERC Investigation

More than 150 environmental groups have signed a letter calling on the Government Accountability Office to investigate FERC, calling it “a rogue agency that is blatantly biased towards pipeline companies it purports to regulate.”

The letter, sent to Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders (Vermont) and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), who are members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, says the commission “is misusing legal loopholes and ignoring court orders to advance gas infrastructure projects while preventing the public from exercising their rights to judicial review or fair public participation in the process.”

The letter was signed by groups such as Delaware Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club and Environment NJ, which have lined up to oppose an increase in pipeline development to deliver energy derived from new Appalachian shale production.

More: NJ.com

Pipeline Finds New Opponent in Northeast Energy Solutions

Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Energy Direct project attracted yet another opposition group when public advocacy group Northeast Energy Solutions filed a formal protest with FERC about the project.

The group listed more than 50 problems with NED’s application for the $5 billion, 400-mile pipeline that is planned to bring natural gas to constrained markets in New England. The group said the application is incomplete and contains errors, especially in the mandated listing of names of owners of property the pipeline would traverse, as well as an incomplete environmental assessment.

“The industry has never witnessed a proposal for an energy project seeking government approval that is as patently defective as the one submitted by Tennessee Gas Pipeline,” said Vincent DeVito, the group’s attorney.

More: The Recorder