A new comprehensive energy bill could be in the works in the Senate, according to Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski.
The Alaska Republican briefly mentioned that she is planning to bring back energy legislation this year at a Thursday confirmation hearing to consider President Trump’s nominees for the Energy Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“We’re going to have an opportunity to re-up that” and continue “much of the good work” accomplished last year on energy legislation, Murkowski said.
Comprehensive energy legislation stalled at the end of 2016 amid negotiations between the House and Senate in conference committee on a final measure to send to the president’s desk. House members decided that with Trump’s election victory they could get a better deal on a bill in the new year and pulled out of the conference negotiations, to Murkowski’s great disappointment.
Murkowski didn’t add much in the way of details at Thursday’s hearing. She made the brief comments while discussing her appreciation for Neil Chatterjee, senior energy adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who worked with Murkowski to shuttle the energy legislation through the Congress. Chatterjee was nominated to serve as FERC commissioner earlier this month by Trump.
“Many of us … have had an opportunity to work with Neil as we attempted to move our energy bill, not only through the Senate last year, but through the whole, entire process,” Murkowski said. “And Neil was a great friend and ally. We are going to have an opportunity to re-up that, perhaps without Neil’s expertise, but an opportunity to continue much of the good work there.”
Murkowski has been introducing legislation in the new year that might give a sense of what a new energy bill could include, such as a measure to open portions of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to drilling, which is a contentious issue for Democrats who have opposed opening the refuge to development. Trump’s budget proposal to Congress calls for the opening of the Arctic refuge to drilling as a legislative priority.
