Republicans wrestle with energy bill proposals

OREANDA-NEWS. July 08, 2015. Republicans in the US Congress are still debating what should be part of the first, comprehensive update to federal energy policy in years, even as they scramble to bring legislation to the floor over the next five weeks.

The US House of Representatives plans to take up energy legislation this month after it advances out of committee, majority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California) said in a memo sent to members last week. The US Senate is further behind in the process, but the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee aims to vote out a bill before senators leave for their month-long summer recess on 7 August.

The Republicans' goal is to develop energy legislation that can attract bipartisan support and be signed into law by President Barack Obama. To support this they have omitted many policy riders and committed to work with Democrats. House Republicans have debuted draft legislation they say would speed up the permitting of pipelines and LNG export facilities while ensuring energy reliability.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) intends to release the text of the Senate bill in "the next week or so" and begin marking up the legislation by mid-July, a Republican aide said. Murkowski is developing the legislation with input from the committee's ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Washington).

That timeline could be pushed back, as negotiations between Republican and Democrat staff are ongoing. Senators must decide which of the 114 bills the committee held hearings on should go into the comprehensive bill.

"Staff are hunkered down doing the back-and-forth coming up with language," the aide said.

The House Energy and Commerce committee is planning to mark up its energy bill this month but has not yet scheduled any hearings. Earlier this year, the House released draft legislative language that was the subject of a series of hearings.

It remains unclear whether Republicans will try to use the legislation as a means to lift longstanding restrictions on US exports of crude, which is a high priority for Murkowski. Representatives Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), in an opinion piece published yesterday, said there was a growing amount of research supporting the benefits of lifting the ban.

Democrats on the House and Senate committees did not respond for comment on the status of negotiations over the energy bills.