Comprehensive Energy Legislation Approved by the House of Representatives.

Both the House and Senate have expressed interest in passing energy policy legislation this Congress, and they continue to move forward with the process. Another major step that occurred last week was the passage of the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act (HR 8). The legislation is significant because it is the first real attempt to overhaul U.S. energy laws since the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. The bill (HR 8) focuses mainly on increasing the reliability and resilience of the electric grid, increased cybersecurity, and also contains several provisions promoting increased efficiency. It also includes provisions addressing natural gas such as language that would expedite the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) consideration of LNG export petitions, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s consideration of natural gas pipeline permit applications, and the creation of 10 national energy security corridors for natural gas pipelines on federal lands. In addition, the bill addresses energy security by calling on DOE and the State Department to coordinate more closely on U.S. energy security and energy diplomacy. It also calls on DOE to develop North American Energy Security Plan to enhance energy integration with Canada and Mexico as well as ways to coordinate with Central America and the Caribbean.

HR 8 was initially crafted to be limited in scope by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in order to gain bipartisan support, but Chairman Upton (R-MI) was unsuccessful in doing this because Democrats on the Committee felt that the bill still had too many provisions promoting fossil energy.

During floor consideration of HR 8, several amendments were considered and a few were approved. The most notable of these was the inclusion of a provision offered by Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) that would lift the ban on oil exports, which was already passed by the House of Representatives by a 261-159 margin in October, 2015. Other amendments of interest that were approved include:

• An amendment by Congressman Gene Green (D-TX) that would streamline the process for cross-border infrastructure projects.
• An amendment by Congresswoman Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) that would require DOE and the Department of Commerce to establish an energy enterprise competition to promote interest in STEM careers for students.
• An amendment by Congressman Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) that would require DOE to study the maximum safe level of volatility at which shipments of crude oil should be made by rail.
• An amendment by Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-WV) that would require DOE and Commerce to identify the legal and regulatory barriers impacting the export of energy products.
• An amendment by Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI) that would require the Environmental Protection Agency to comply with executive orders related to regulatory planning and review.

In the Senate, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved a similar, but bipartisan energy bill (S 2012) in July, 2015. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said that she is hopeful that her bill will be considered by the Senate early next year. She has also said that although the House bill does not enjoy the same sort of bipartisan support as the Senate bill, that she is optimistic that the House and Senate can work together to find common ground as the process moves forward.

S 2012 did not contain language addressing crude oil exports, but it was contained in the Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act (S 2011), which was passed at the same time as S 2012 and was approved by the Committee along party lines. Therefore, crude oil export legislation would likely be a large area of debate when S 2012 is taken to the Senate floor. Senate Republicans and Democrats have already begun discussing the possibility coupling lifting the crude oil export ban with Democratic priorities such as the extension of tax breaks for renewable energy production, reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation fund, and incentives for energy efficiency in legislative vehicles such as the year end must-pass omnibus appropriations legislation, but such a deal is more likely to come to fruition when energy legislation is considered on the Senate floor next year.