The bipartisan leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee are rolling out new energy innovation legislation as the best chance to target greenhouse gas emissions, but they’ll have to convince liberals and Democrats in Congress intent on pushing more sweeping climate measures.
Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, who chairs the committee, and top Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia unveiled the energy bill Thursday, and they are fast-tracking the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already scheduled a vote to limit debate on the measure, the step before a full floor vote, for Monday. Committee aides also said they didn’t think the White House would oppose the bill, and they’ve been working with the Energy Department on pieces of the legislation.
The American Energy Innovation Act of 2020, S. 2657, combines portions of more than 50 measures, all of which the Senate Energy Committee considered individually and cleared last year, according to a fact sheet on the bill. Those include measures boosting energy efficiency, dedicating research funding for energy storage and advanced nuclear reactors, promoting carbon capture and carbon removal technologies, and encouraging emissions-cutting technologies in the industrial and transportation sectors.
“This bill is our best chance to modernize our nation’s energy policies in more than 12 years,” Murkowski said in a statement. “By working together to pass it into law, we can promote a range of emerging technologies that will help keep energy affordable even as it becomes cleaner and cleaner.”
Manchin said the bill was the result of “strong bipartisan work” and would “make a down payment on emissions-reducing technologies.”
“Importantly, this bill will connect energy-producing communities, including in states like West Virginia and Alaska, to new markets and job opportunities while laying the groundwork for the Department of Energy to advance new and necessary critical emissions-reducing technologies,” Manchin said in a statement.
Many of the bipartisan measures included in the broader package have been touted by Republicans as part of their energy innovation agenda, which has become central to the party’s developing response to climate change.
“This clean energy innovation bill is a monumental move toward decarbonizing our economy,” said Rich Powell, executive director of ClearPath Action, a conservative clean energy group. He added that the bill “provides more options for both American and global energy systems to go clean and address the climate challenge.”
While Republican leadership in the House chamber has introduced a new set of bills related to carbon capture incentives and carbon removal by planting trees, GOP senators have pointed mostly to previously proposed legislation to boost advanced energy technologies they say would help curb climate change.
That framing, however, could make the bill a challenging pill to swallow for liberal Democrats who say those measures aren’t nearly sufficient enough to address rising greenhouse gas emissions. It also isn’t clear whether House Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee would be willing to advance a comprehensive energy bill, as they are pushing their own broad climate plan that would target greenhouse gas emissions directly.
Democrats more broadly may have some concerns with portions of the energy bill too.
For example, Democrats have previously raised concerns about mineral security legislation, provisions of which are included in the broader package that in part encourage the Energy Department to develop technologies to separate rare earth elements from coal and coal byproducts.
Republicans and Democrats were also unable to reach an agreement on building code provisions that target energy efficiency and emissions from buildings ahead of the bill’s release. That prompted sharp criticism from environmental and clean energy groups, who say those provisions to strengthen building codes represent by far the largest potential energy and emissions savings of any of the efficiency bills the Senate committee has approved.
The provisions in question were part of a bipartisan efficiency bill from Maine Republican Susan Collins and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, which the energy panel already approved in bipartisan vote. But the overall energy package drops the provisions to strengthen building codes.
“As it stands, this plan misses the best opportunity on the table to cut greenhouse gas emissions while reducing costs for households and businesses,” said Steven Nadel, executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “Congress is going to need to step up and fix the bill for it to have a shot at becoming law.”
The bill also includes a few other provisions that have rankled climate activists. For example, the legislation includes a provision that would speed approval of exports of small volumes of liquefied natural gas, which several progressive environmental groups called a “dangerous incentive” to boost natural gas production.
Those groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Sierra Club, also asked the senators to strike provisions on advanced nuclear and carbon capture and storage.
“With the climate crisis upon us, we cannot afford to rely solely on the promise of innovation,” the groups wrote in a letter to Murkowski and Manchin. “Instead, we urge you to support legislation and tax policy that encourages the deployment of wind, solar, storage, and other proven renewable energy solutions.”
