Senators release omnibus energy bill, look to full Senate action

A bipartisan energy bill may be set to whisk through the Senate as a compilation of more than 50 bills focused overwhelmingly on research and development for energy technologies, including carbon capture, utilization, and storage.

The bill has a few other provisions of particular interest to the natural gas industry, including one that would expedite small-scale exports of liquefied natural gas, such as the US exports to Caribbean islands that do not move by big LNG tankers.

Another provision would require a federal study of building an infrastructure for ethane and other gas liquids in the region of the Marcellus and Utica shales in the Appalachia. Most ethane from that region is pipelined west, south and east, but Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has for some time pursued the hope of an ethane hub in his state that would serve regional petrochemical industrial development.

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Ala.) and Manchin released the text of the bill Feb. 27 as the American Energy Innovation Act. Their announcement noted that they had spent much time examining and approving bills during 2019 that were written to advance energy efficiency, storage and supply security.

The senators had worked behind the scenes to compile those bills into one piece of legislation and arrange for them to move swiftly through full Senate passage. They apparently had Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ky.) on their side.

McConnell filed cloture earlier in the day on a minor bill, S. 2657, which means the bill may come up for action quickly. Once there is a motion to proceed, the Murkowski-Manchin compilation will be offered as a substitute—meaning it will become S. 2657.

The bill would instruct the Energy Department to establish research and development programs to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, costs, and environmental performance of natural gas and coal and similar programs for carbon storage, carbon utilization, and carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere.

It would also require research and development programs for wind energy, solar energy, marine wave and current energy, electricity storage, nuclear energy, industrial efficiency, vehicle efficiency, and cybersecurity.