(WASHINGTON, DC) -- As negotiators weigh next steps,
lawmakers on both sides of Congress are waiting on the sidelines with a host of
energy asks they're hoping to hitch onto the next relief package. Here is a few
ME are watching:
— Bipartisan House members want to include legislation, H.R.
7483 (116), to provide financial relief to rural electric cooperatives that are
suffering amid the coronavirus crisis.
— More than 30 farm-state lawmakers want negotiators to
include language "explicitly" directing relief to biofuel producers,
including, for example, language requiring the Agriculture secretary to provide
a per-gallon payment to producers for renewable fuels produced during the
pandemic.
— Senate Republicans are directly urging Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell to prioritize assistance for the clean energy sector, and House
Democrats have also vowed to prioritize assistance to the sector in future
packages. The GOP lawmakers say they would like policies that benefit
"renewables, nuclear, carbon capture, efficiency, advanced transportation,
and energy storage."
— House Republicans, led by Natural Resources ranking member
Rob Bishop and Science ranking member Frank Lucas, are looking to include
provisions to reduce foreign dependence on critical minerals. "While the
insecurity of many of our country's supply chains is not new, the threat posed
by America's growing import reliance for critical minerals has become
particularly apparent," they write. Murkowski's bill, the American Mineral
Security Act, S. 1317 (116) , made it into the Republican Covid-19 measure
pushed in the Senate.
— House Democrats have also drawn a line in the sand against
any proposals for federal corporate immunity that would shield businesses that
reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic from lawsuits for five years, something
environmental activists have said is also tied to the fossil fuel industry.
— Meanwhile, House Democrats' have already included more
than $1 billion in their own coronavirus rescue plan to help low-income
households cover their water bills and would institute a moratorium on utility
service shutoffs for any entity receiving federal relief funds. Democrats on
the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee also recently released a
report warning that just 10 states have protections in place to shield their
residents from having their water, gas or electric utilities shut off. The
National Association of Clean Water Agencies asked for $4 billion to help cover
the costs of a shutoff moratorium.
