In This Issue:

Energy and Climate Debate; Congress; Administration; Department of Agriculture; Department of Defense; Department of Energy; Department of Interior; Environmental Protection Agency; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Government Accountability Office; Nuclear Regulatory Commission; States; International; and Miscellaneous.

Excerpt from Energy and Climate Debate

With budget negotiations heating up, and election year politics becoming more relevant than ever, energy issues continue to play a key role in the national debates. The House returns from recess slated to bring the year's first appropriations bill to the floor, while the Senate looks to spend its first week back debating a student loan bill and the Small Business Jobs and Tax Relief Act.

The House-Senate conference on the surface transportation bill (S. 1813) is scheduled to begin this Tuesday, and an agreement on the final bill may turn on whether conferees can resolve differences over environmental provisions. House Republicans want to include provisions that would block new rules for handling coal ash from coal-fired power plants and force regulators to accelerate a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline permit, while the Senate-passed version does not include such provisions.