Congress and Energy This Fall
By Terrence Heubert, Will Le, & James Wiltraut, Jr., JD Supra.
Congress could consider wide-ranging energy legislation this fall if they can get past a Continuing Resolution, rumors of a government shut-down and pre-election year politics.
Earlier this week, a group of Senate Democrats released a national energy bill, the American Energy Innovation Act of 2015, which lays out the party’s “vision for a cleaner energy future.” The bill addresses the need to update energy-related infrastructure and technological innovation.
In response to the first installment of the Department of Energy’s Quadrennial Energy Review, which projected an 18 percent rise in the cost of electricity, a 72 percent increase in clean energy generation and the need to fill an additional 1.5 million new jobs in the energy industry within the next 15 years, Democrats claim that their legislation looks to get ahead of these issues with a bill that “seeks to unleash American innovation in energy, to spur new technologies and opportunities, to enhance our nation’s security and to create jobs while reducing pollution.”