The IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ 29th annual energy forum next week, aka CERAWeek, the Houston Chronicle reports.
The event, now expanded to five days of panel discussions and keynote speeches, has been referred to as ‘the Super Bowl of energy conferences’ because of its importance as the premier Offshore Technology Conference. It will be at the George R. Brown Convention Center downtown this year.
The agenda is lengthy (and changes frequently), admission is expensive (lowest 2-day attendance rate is $5,500) but the panels and speeches are widely followed in the industry. A good deal of news comes out of the sessions and sometimes companies choose CERAWeek to break news.
The busiest day tends to be Tuesday, Oil Day, where the keynotes will be Khalid Al-Falih, President and Chief Executive Officer, Saudi Aramco; Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy; James Mulva, Chairman, President and CEO, ConocoPhillips; and Paolo Scaroni, Chief Executive Officer, Eni.
“The U.S. House narrowly passed a sweeping climate change bill that’s a top item on President Obama’s agenda” reports NPR’s David Welna. “The measure would put gradually stricter caps on the total national output of heat-trapping gases, based on a system of permits that can be bought and sold.”
Texas Republicans were unified in their opposition to the energy bill. Texas Democrats were divided.
Of the 219 “Yea” votes on Energy legislation only 9 came from Texas. All were Democrats that won their seat by more than 65% in the last election. The 3 Texas Democrats joining the 212 “Nay” votes won their race by 58% or less of the vote.
National Journal reports “the most widespread Democratic defections came from Southern states, most of which backed McCain over Obama last November. Eighteen of the 44 Democratic “no” votes came from the 11 states of the Old Confederacy; 40 Southern Democrats supported the bill. That means nearly a third of Southern Democrats opposed the bill, a higher defection rate than in the Midwest and Plains (20 percent), much less the Northeast (8 percent) and the Pacific West (just under 7 percent).
The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate where it is expected to face stiff opposition and isn’t likley to get earn the support of Texas Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R).
Details on how Texas Democrats votes after the jump…
[more]
