Puneet Kollipara
Puneet Kollipara covers politics and the energy business from the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Houston Chronicle and Hearst. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and physics from Washington University in St. Louis. Follow him on Twitter: @pkollipara
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Report says power plants are taxing U.S. freshwater supplies
Citing Texas as a prime example, a new report argues U.S. freshwater resources are increasingly burdened by electricity generating plants. More »
Republicans say EPA avoiding public comment on new rules
Two top Republican senators accused the Environmental Protection Agency of seeking to avoid public comment on possible electric-grid reliability impacts of proposed air-toxics standards for power plants. More »
Democrats use climate study to bash GOP skeptics
Two Democrats on Monday seized on the findings of a scientist who reversed his position on global warming to lash out at Republican skeptics and call for prompt action to prevent what one of them called “potentially devastating climate change.’’ More »
Support for federal backing of renewables falls, poll finds
Public support for putting federal money toward research on certain renewable energy sources has fallen significantly since early 2009, with virtually all the decline coming from Republicans, a new Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll found. More »
Energy companies spent $750 million lobbying for hydraulic fracturing
Oil and gas companies that hydraulically fracture wells spent $747 million lobbying federal policymakers and contributing to lawmakers’ campaigns from 2001 through late 2011, an advocacy group said today. Common Cause says its findings reflect industry’s desire to avoid federal regulation. More »
Senate rejects measure to block EPA’s cross-state emissions rule
The Senate today shot down a resolution to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s cross-state power plant emissions rule that Texas lawmakers have criticized and the state has asked a court to block. More »
Senators look to delay EPA power-plant rules criticized by Texas officials
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to would delay compliance dates for two controversial Environmental Protection Agency rules, including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that Texas has sought to block and that the state’s lawmakers, utilities and officials have criticized. More »
Senate panel OKs 2-year highway bill as GOP seeks to tie in drilling revenues
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously voted to advance a two-year extension of current highway funding to the Senate floor on Wednesday. But the bill has a $12 billion funding gap because the pot of money that pays for highway projects is projected to go dry next year, and fuel-tax increases are off the table to close the gap. More »
EPA will move to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will quietly move forward with its first-ever limits on greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants, in the absence of action from Congress and using its recently obtained authority under the Clean Air Act. More »
Obama threatens to veto Senate measure to block EPA cross-state rule
President Obama threatened today to veto a Senate measure that would strike down an upcoming Environmental Protection Agency rule for reducing power-plant emissions that can blow to downwind states. More »
Senate to consider measure to block EPA’s cross-state emissions rule
The congressional battle over an upcoming power-plant emissions rule that Texas wants a federal court to block has moved to the Senate, which will likely take up a measure this week for blocking the rule. More »
10,000 Keystone XL pipeline protesters circle White House
About 10,000 opponents of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline for carrying tar-sands oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries surrounded the White House on Sunday — exactly a year before the 2012 election — seeking to pressure President Barack Obama to reject the project. More »
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