With the U.S. Congress taking a two-week recess in the first half of October, U.S. Senate lawmakers are set to miss their goal of releasing an updated tax extenders package in September that was meant to include incentives for the energy sector.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. |
During a Sept. 25 briefing, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the extenders bill had been "pushed to the back" in terms of priorities, even before the U.S. House of Representatives announced an official impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump over alleged abuse of power.
The committee had hoped to introduce the new extenders legislation soon after returning in September from summer break and to possibly insert the bill into must-pass legislation such as a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. But the panel has yet to introduce the extenders bill, and Congress recently approved a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open through Nov. 21 that did not contain tax credit extensions for energy technologies.
Although House and Senate negotiators are working on a compromise extenders package, Grassley said, "I don't know whether it will be successful, and I don't know what it will contain. But ... we're negotiating on the same things, and I wouldn't want to talk about what the possibilities are."
With Congress stalled on major climate and energy legislation, the tax code has become a popular focus for lawmakers hoping to encourage clean energy development. Both the Senate and House tax-writing committees have introduced extenders bills in 2019 that would revive or prolong incentives for certain renewable energy technologies. But clean power advocates have pushed Congress to do more, particularly as key credits for wind and solar power are set to expire or phase down and as industry groups press for the creation of an investment tax credit for stand-alone energy storage projects.
Trump campaign slams Democrat anti-fracking stances
Trump's reelection campaign sent a Sept. 27 email blasting calls from several Democratic presidential candidates to ban hydraulic fracturing, a technology that contributed to the surge in U.S. natural gas output in the past decade.
The email cited a 2016 report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimating that a nationwide fracking ban would eliminate more than 14 million American jobs and cause natural gas prices to jump by 400% and electricity prices to rise by 100% over five years.
"2020 socialist Democrats anti-fracking plans would be an economic catastrophe," Trump campaign spokesperson Sarah Matthews said.
Some Democratic primary contestants, including U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have called for a complete ban on fracking. But other leading candidates, including former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, have a different stance on fracking, instead calling for the practice to be limited or better regulated.
FERC approves CAISO tariff changes
In an order released late Sept. 27, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted the California ISO's proposed tariff changes regarding its reliability must-run framework for addressing the potential retirement of energy resources needed for grid reliability (FERC docket ER19-1641).
But FERC Commissioner Richard Glick dissented in part, saying the order would give CAISO and other U.S. regional grid operators "unbounded authority to retain resources through out-of-market contracts," which would represent "an abdication of [FERC's] responsibility under the Federal Power Act."
Bills advance on EPA spending, Yucca Mountain
Congressional lawmakers advanced a handful of energy-pertinent bills before taking their early October break.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations voted Sept. 26 to send its fiscal year 2020 spending bill for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department to the Senate floor. The bill would lift the EPA's budget to $9.01 billion, up by $161 million from the prior-year enacted level and well above the Trump administration's request for $6.07 billion.
Interior, which oversees the leasing of federal lands for energy production, would receive $13.72 billion under the Senate's bill, up from the White House's proposed funding of $12.59 billion. However, the legislation provides no money to relocate the headquarters of Interior's Bureau of Land Management to the West.
Turning to the House, the Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Energy voted Sept. 26 to advance H.R. 2699, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act. The bill from U.S. Reps. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and John Shimkus, R-Ill., would authorize the U.S. Department of Energy to contract with private companies on temporary nuclear waste storage while restarting the licensing process for the stalled Yucca Mountain permanent waste repository in Nevada.
The legislation mirrors a bill that the House passed in 2018 but that never came up for a Senate vote.
Lawmakers push for more climate disclosures
Senate Democrats are raising pressure on rating agencies and other financial institutions to assess the impacts of climate change.
On Sept. 27, lawmakers including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and members of the Senate Democrats' Special Committee on the Climate Crisis attended the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York City and met with business leaders to discuss climate action.
The senators urged representatives of credit rating agencies and banks to more fully account for the financial risks associated with climate change, including potential damage to infrastructure and reduced property value.
"We agreed we're going to try to do more together … to be bolder in terms of their requirements for disclosure and for risk," Schumer said during a Sept. 27 press call on the meetings. He also promised to bring a "big, bold climate plan" to the Senate floor if Democrats retake the chamber in the 2020 elections but added that Democratic lawmakers still are figuring out what could go in the legislation.
|
||
|---|---|---|
Industry events |
||
| Sept. 30-Oct. 2 | The Pacific Rim Offshore Wind Summit will take place in San Francisco. |
|
| Oct. 2 | The U.S. Energy Association will hold its annual Energy Supply Forum at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. |
|
Notable stories from last week
FERC chairman admits that more rates could take effect due to quorum issues
How Seattle stakeholders put the brakes on the city's proposed gas ban
Stop 'fossil fuel apology tour,' speakers urge US state lawmakers
US Senate committee advances more energy bills, waits on FERC nominees
Experts form independent air pollution panel following dismissal by US EPA chief


