The Senate plans to debate a bipartisan energy bill that will give Republicans a chance to vote against President Obama’s recent move to block new coal leases on federal land.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced Wednesday that the bill is coming to the floor for debate. McConnell said he is hoping the Senate can replicate last year’s major bipartisan agreements on federal education policy and transportation funding with similar agreement on the energy bill, which is co-authored by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski, R-Ala., and the ranking member of that committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
But another GOP leader, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said the bill would include amendments targeting Obama’s action halting coal leases, a move many Democrats will oppose.
“This energy bill will be an opportunity to speak out with amendments specifically related to the president’s most recent action,” Barrasso said on Tuesday.
Barrasso said Obama’s decision to block coal mining leases on federal land for the next three years is essentially an attack on rural America, which relies on coal for both jobs and energy.
“In a sense, that is just going to be sending pink slips to thousands of people who earn their living, their livelihood, with coal,” Barrasso said. “When you take a look at that source of energy in rural America, I think that is why so many people feel that the president has contempt for the rural lifestyle and the lives and livelihood of the people who live and work there.”
The energy bill is an otherwise bipartisan measure.
It includes must-haves for the Democrats, such as the permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, money for park maintenance and provisions to promote the development of renewable energy sources.
Republicans included a measure to speed up permits for exporting liquid natural gas as well as money to modernize the electric grid and protect the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Republicans have been seeking faster liquid natural gas permits for years, and say the supply can be sent to countries that are otherwise dependent on purchasing gas from Iran or Russia.
“We have people from around the world who want to buy it from us,” Barrasso said.
