Environment

President Obama's top two climate advisers yesterday met with Democrats in the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition to discuss his carbon emissions agenda, focusing on a new White House data initiative. John Podesta and Dan Utech, Obama's climate advisers, met with 19 of the coalition's 56 members to share details about the White House-centered elements of the president's government-wide Climate Action Plan, according to a source briefed on the meeting. The sit-down "primarily" looked at the Climate Data Initiative, a project unveiled last week to allow easy visualization of government scientists' projections for sea-level rise and other global warming effects at Climate.Data.gov (Greenwire, March 19). Agency actions, such as U.S. EPA rules for power plant emissions that are expected to advance to the next stage in their regulatory process within weeks, were "a part of" the meeting, but the White House played the central role in Podesta and Utech's discussion, the source explained, speaking on condition of anonymity. The coalition is eyeing future meetings with the European Union commissioner for climate action and the Bureau of Land Management.

Rep. Henry Waxman’s decision to retire at the end of the year has left greens wondering who will step in as House Democrats’ moral compass on environmental issues. But it might not be just one lawmaker who emerges as the chamber’s loudest voice on climate change and other hot-button topics. The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition has built a caucus of 56 Democrats who are vowing to carry on Waxman’s legacy. “We’re not just leaving it to a handful of individuals,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the co-chair of the coalition, told POLITICO in a recent interview.