Cabinet

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed Richard L. Kauffman as “energy czar” and said he would chair a newly created cabinet position for the Energy Policy and Finance Subcommittee. In a state of the state address, Cuomo said his “ambitious agenda” includes “investments in energy infrastructure, solar power and an electric vehicle network. Kauffman would be tasked with, among other things, creating the state’s first “green bank” within the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The bank would offer loans and grants to further “clean” energy deployment, coordinate and leverage the state’s energy spending and alleviate financial market barriers “that currently impede the flow of private capital to renewable energy projects.” Kauffman is a senior adviser to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He serves on the boards of the Brookings Institution and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday she will resign from that position after President Obama’s State of the Union speech next month, bringing to an end a sometimes tumultuous four-year tenure.

Members of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s cabinet were joined by supporters from the state’s general assembly and local and regional officials Thursday at the Community College of Beaver County in Monaca, PA, to lobby for construction of a petrochemical complex, including an ethane cracker, in the southwestern Pennsylvania borough.

In its final rule to eliminate harmful air pollution from oil and natural gas production announced Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted the industry a “reasonable” time to meet its requirements, extending the deadline for full compliance from 60 days to two and a half years.

A nonprofit, nonpartisan group that represents all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties says it supports a local impact fee on natural gas development in the state but has “strong reservations” about counties being ultimately responsible for its levying and administration.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is heeding the advice of his Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission (MSAC) by proposing an impact fee, enhanced safety provisions and incentives to increase natural gas consumption.

Cabinet officials and leading senators Monday said they will continue to put the pressure of the federal government on BP plc until it caps the oil leak, cleans up the waters off the southern coast of Louisiana and pays damage claims.

A Cabinet-level working group is in the process of developing a “coordinated approach” for permitting transmission lines on public lands to deliver primarily electricity generated from renewable fuels, said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last Wednesday.

Ernest Fage has been named the new Minister of Energy for the province of Nova Scotia, following a complete cabinet re-shuffle by Prime Minister John Hamm. Fage had been the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. His family owns Fage Farms Ltd. in Hastings and Nappa, Canada, which produces milk, beef and grains for export. He was first elected to the Nova Scotia legislature in a 1997 by-election, then was re-elected in 1998 and 1999. Fage replaces Gordon Balser, who has become Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, with responsibility over the Public Service Commission. Fage had co-chaired a working group with Balser last year, which created Nova Scotia’s energy strategy. One of the recommendations had been the creation of the Department of Energy, which Balser first took over in June 2002. Fage will be the second person to hold the title with Balser’s move.