Senators resubmit several energy policy reform ideas to conference

Nov. 28, 2016
US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) and Ranking Minority Member Maria A. Cantwell (D-Wash.) submitted a somewhat revised version of their federal energy policy reform legislation to the conference with their US House counterparts on Nov. 25 that would restore many provisions the House energy leaders proposed deleting a week earlier.

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) and Ranking Minority Member Maria A. Cantwell (D-Wash.) submitted a somewhat revised version of their federal energy policy reform legislation to the conference with their US House counterparts on Nov. 25 that would restore many provisions the House energy leaders proposed deleting a week earlier.

The two Senate energy leaders proposed restoring “a host of provisions” that included those related to LNG exports, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, hydropower, natural gas pipelines, manufacturing, innovation, carbon benefits of biomass, and critical minerals, they said.

“We also remain hopeful that an agreement can be reached on provisions to address California’s drought crisis, to remedy wildfire funding challenges, and to improve forest management,” they said.

“While neither of us supports every provision in this proposal, it is the result of good-faith, bipartisan negotiations; it encompasses the broad range of work that can be completed this year; and it balances competing preferences for energy and resource policy that will remain just as strong in the next Congress,” Murkowski and Cantwell said.

“We encourage our House colleagues to seize this opportunity to complete a good bill that we can send to the president’s desk before Congress adjourns,” they said.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].