Abby L. Harvey
GHG Daily
2/5/2016
A sweeping energy package containing several amendments related to carbon capture and storage has been held up on the Senate floor due to ongoing debate about relief funds for Flint, Mich., where an ongoing water crisis has left thousands without safe drinking water. The bill was put up for cloture Thursday evening but did not receive enough votes to end debate.
“Now that it’s clear there are not 60 votes to end debate on the energy bill, both sides should work to resolve the remaining issues that will get us to final passage. We are confident we can work out the remaining issues through good-faith negotiations, including a solution for the water crisis in Flint,” bill co-sponsor Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement following the votes.
The Flint crisis began in April 2014 when the city changed its water source from treated Detroit Water and Sewerage Department water to water from the Flint River. The water is heavily contaminated with lead and has caused an ongoing public health issue. The problem only recently reached national attention and resulted in President Barack Obama calling a federal state of emergency in late January for the city.
Michigan’s senators, Gary Peters (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D), tried to negotiate a $600 million package attached to be bill that would go toward a joint federal-state effort to replace the city’s heavily corroded water infrastructure and fund a program to monitor Flint residents for lead exposure for the next 10 years. However, by the time the cloture vote was called, lawmakers had not reached an agreement. The cloture vote failed 46-50. The bill is eligible to be brought back to the floor next week.
The Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015 is a bipartisan legislative update to the nation’s energy policy. The package aims to save energy, expand domestic energy supplies, enable infrastructure investment, protect the electric grid, boost energy trade, improve the performance of federal agencies, and renew effective conservation programs.
The bill was sponsored by Cantwell and committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and passed through the panel in July with an 18-4 vote. Murkowski and Cantwell have sought to ensure that poison-pill riders do not derail the bipartisan measure. Until the Flint water crisis, the senators’ efforts had been largely successful.
More than 300 amendments have been offered on the bill, and just over 30 have been adopted, including an amendment from Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) to “affirm a Federal commitment to carbon capture utilization and storage research, development, and implementation and to study the costs and benefits of contracting authority for price stabilization,” and an amendment offered by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) to create a technology prize at the Department of Energy for projects separating carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Some more controversial amendments that made it onto the floor were rejected. Sen. Brian Schatz’s (D-Hawaii) proposal to “phase out tax preferences for fossil fuels on the same schedule as the phase out of the tax credits for wind facilities” failed by a vote of 45-50. Senators also voted 43-52 against an amendment from Sen Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to require campaign finance disclosure for “certain persons” benefitting from fossil fuel activities. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s (R-Alaska) amendment requiring federal agencies to repeal or amend one or more rules before issuing or amending another rule was rejected in a 47-48 vote.
However, the most controversial amendments were not negotiated to come up for a vote, such as four amendments offered by Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) that would either halt or prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing its carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants.
One of the Inhofe amendments would require the EPA to submit a report to Congress that contains environmental and economic impacts of the final Clean Power Plan before the rule can go into effect. Under a second amendment, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) would have to submit a report to Congress assessing the Clean Power Plan’s impact on grid reliability before the rule could enter into force.
Two other amendments would prevent any action from being taken under the president’s Climate Action Plan, including implementation of the Clean Power Plan, if that action would result in reduced grid reliability or increased energy prices.
The Obama administration has made clear that the president will veto any bill that that would impede its climate change mitigation efforts.
None of Inhofe’s amendments related to the carbon emissions standards was proposed on the Senate floor.
