US House panel advances energy bills as speaker 'chaos' stalls floor action

Lawmakers in the GOP-majority US House of Representatives are pushing ahead on electric power-focused bills despite the House's struggle to elect a new speaker — a vacancy that had been preventing the full chamber from voting on legislation.

On Oct. 24-25, a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved 17 bills that aim to support the deployment of nuclear energy and hydropower and bolster grid reliability, sending the bills to the full committee. But advancing the bills beyond committee will require a new House speaker, a role that has gone unfilled for the past three weeks after the House voted out the prior speaker, US Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Without a speaker, many of the proposals considered at the markup remain in draft form and cannot be officially introduced, said Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the ranking member of the Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee.

"The House is currently in disarray, even though the Energy and Commerce Committee is trying our best, and the chaos is really undermining our ability to govern," DeGette said during the markup.

On Oct. 25, the House elected Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as speaker.

The subcommittee considered 12 bills to support nuclear energy and improve the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing process, including by setting clearer timeframes, reducing hourly fees for advanced reactors, and avoiding duplicative environmental reviews. Those bills cleared the subcommittee by voice vote with bipartisan support.

"We all agree that a robust and growing nuclear industry is critical for reducing emissions, providing reliable, affordable, clean energy to Americans, and for building durable economic and strategic relationships around the world," said US Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the full committee.

Despite concerns with some of the nuclear bills, "we are moving in the right direction," Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) said.

But the subcommittee split along party lines over several other bills. The proposals included two GOP bills related to US Department of Energy efficiency standards. One would prevent the DOE from updating conservation standards for electric distribution transformers for five years, while the other would overhaul the process for forming DOE efficiency standards for all products.

"This administration is using efficiency and appliance standards to pursue climate objectives over consumer choice," Subcommittee Chair Jeff Duncan (R-SC) said. "These standards will increase the cost of appliances and limit the availability of consumer options."

But Pallone said the efficiency bills would weaken the DOE's authority to issue specific standards and add "cumbersome and duplicative requirements" to the department's rulemaking process, delaying standards that could save energy and money.

Democrats also opposed a bill that would update the agency's hydropower licensing rules, including giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a maximum of two years to review licenses for "next-generation" hydropower facilities and exempting some smaller hydroelectric plants from licensing requirements.

Rodgers said the bill could help double US hydropower production, bolstering grid reliability and increasing the supply of carbon-free power. But Pallone flagged comments from FERC and Biden administration officials asserting that the bill would exempt about 80% of commission-jurisdictional hydropower projects from licensing and threaten the recovery of fish populations.

A bill requiring FERC to review and sign off on any federal regulation that the commission or a state utility regulator finds has a "significant negative impact" on grid reliability is also being opposed by Democrats.

DeGette said the bill's mandates were "simply infeasible" and would result in a "massive amount of uncertainty" as regulations needing review pile up at FERC. The Colorado lawmaker offered an amendment, rejected by the GOP-majority subcommittee, that would bar the bill from going into effect unless FERC can certify it is capable of doing the needed analysis.

With the GOP holding a narrow House majority and Democrats controlling the Senate, Pallone urged committee Republicans to "be mindful that the only way any of these bills will ever become law is with Democratic support."

S&P Global Commodity Insights reporter Molly Christian produces content for distribution on S&P Capital IQ Pro. S&P Global Commodity Insights is a division of S&P Global Inc.