U.S. lawmakers have until March 23 to work out a compromise to fund the federal government for the rest of the 2018 fiscal year, legislation that looks likely to leave out controversial policy riders for energy.
Congress had been expected to introduce an omnibus spending bill the week of March 12-16 but missed that target amid disagreements on a range of policy issues. But appropriators in Congress say the legislation should arrive shortly. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said the omnibus bill should be released by March 19.
Past spending bills for fiscal year 2018 included Republican measures that would speed up the repeal of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Clean Water Rule, delay implementation of the EPA's latest ground-level ozone standards, and designate all biomass burned for electricity generation as carbon free. GOP leaders in Congress have also sought to trim funding for the EPA, parts of the U.S. Department of Energy and other agencies to reflect the Trump administration's goal of cutting non-defense spending.
But the tight timeline for passing a spending deal could mean legislators leave out divisive policy items related to energy. Melinda Pierce, legislative director for environmental group Sierra Club, said Democratic committee staff expect no policy riders to make it into a final omnibus bill, although Republicans "seem to be waiting to show their hand." For the most part, however, Pierce did not expect big energy-related riders and heard the pending omnibus will exclude proposals to delay ozone standards and hasten the repeal of the Clean Water Rule.
"There is some thought out there that EPA action on the [water and ozone regulations] is taking care of the concerns" from rule opponents, making the policy riders "moot," Pierce said.
Agency heads to defend 2019 budgets
At the same time as Congress scrambles to set funding for the rest of 2018, Capitol Hill has scheduled a wave of hearings on President Donald Trump's fiscal-year 2019 budget request.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry will appear March 20 before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the DOE's 2019 budget proposal. The hearing will follow Perry's March 15 testimony before the House Appropriations Committee's energy subcommittee.
Trump has proposed deep spending cuts for the DOE's renewable energy office and called for terminating the department's Title 17 loan guarantee program and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. Although Congress controls the federal government's purse strings and has rejected many of Trump's proposals for the DOE, lawmakers and environmental groups are wary of potential efforts to not follow the direction of Congress.
A Government Accountability Office report found the DOE withheld $91 million from the ARPA-E program in fiscal year 2017. ARPA-E award recipients also told the GAO that a recent DOE review of agency funding opportunities had created "uncertainty" for their projects, including potential timeline delays and staffing difficulties.
Groups seek more time in FERC resilience study
A diverse coalition of industry groups asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for more time to submit comments on FERC's grid resilience review launched in January. The proceeding is aimed at determining regional grid operators' concerns about resilience and reliability after FERC rejected a DOE proposal that sought to ensure full cost recovery for at-risk coal-fired and nuclear power plants.
Grid operators were required to submit comments to FERC by March 9, with reply comments due 30 days later. But a group of key stakeholders said 30 days is not enough time to mull input from regional transmission organizations and independent system operators. On March 14, energy trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute, American Council on Renewable Energy, American Public Power Association, and the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America asked FERC for an additional 30 days to give their thoughts on the weighty issue. They asked FERC to respond to the request by March 21.
"The filings made by the RTOs/ISOs are significant, and will require substantial time and effort by interested members of the public ... to digest and analyze," the filing said.
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|---|---|---|
| | Congress | |
| March 20 | The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will examine the Department of Energy's fiscal-year 2019 budget request, with Energy Secretary Rick Perry testifying. | |
| March 20 | The House Energy and Commerce Committee's energy and environment subcommittees will hold a hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's fiscal-year 2019 budget request. | |
| March 20 | The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety will hold a hearing on the nomination of John Ryder to be a member of the Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors. | |
| March 21 | The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold an oversight hearing on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. | |
| March 21 | A House Natural Resources Committee subcommittee will hold an oversight hearing on the fiscal-year 2019 budget priorities of the Bureau of Reclamation and the four federal power marketing administrations. | |
| March 21 | The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on National Security will hold a hearing on bureaucratic challenges to hurricane recovery in Puerto Rico. | |
| March 22 | The House Committee on Appropriations' Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee will hold a hearing on the fiscal year 2019 applied energy budget, with Under Secretary for Energy Mark Menezes and other DOE officials testifying. | |
| | Industry events | |
| | March 19 | The 17th annual Wall Street Green Summit is taking place in New York City. |
| March 20 | The Atlantic Council is holding an event on the "Future of Solar Energy and the Role of American Leadership" in Washington, D.C. | |
| March 22-23 | The DOE's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee will meet in Bethesda, Md. | |
| | March 22 | The Wilson Center will host speakers at its Washington, D.C., office on China's One Belt One Road energy projects, which have been dominated by coal-fired power plants. |
Other notable stories from last week
Pipelines expect minimal impact from FERC tax policy reversal
New US House bill seeks tax credits for existing coal plants
FERC moves to ensure electric utility rates reflect tax changes
'Unintended consequences': Tariffs may boost US coal use but threaten exports
US grid reliability organization NERC names new leader
US issues alert on Russian cyberattacks on energy sector, infrastructure

