Rules panel sends energy jobs bills to floor for debate
E&E News
By Daniel Bush
September 17, 2014
The House Rules Committee yesterday moved two legislative packages aimed at boosting domestic energy production to the House floor for debate, over objections from Democrats who claim the measures would increase greenhouse gas emissions and cause environmental pollution. The White House issued a veto threat last night.
The Rules Committee move was the first step toward approval later this week of H.R. 2, or the "American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act," a legislative package including a bill that would approve the cross-border section of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The package also includes measures that would boost domestic oil and gas exploration and block U.S. EPA's proposed power plant rule. The second bundle of bills includes regulatory changes to drilling, mining and other industries.
Rules Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) said that together, the bills would create millions of energy-related jobs. "This bill finally paves the way forward for a real economic recovery," Sessions said.
House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) told the panel that "increasing American energy production is one of the best ways to put Americans back to work."
"That's why House Republicans have passed over a dozen bills this Congress to promote energy," Hastings said.
The House has already passed many of the measures before in different forms, despite the fact that they face stiff opposition from Senate Democrats. But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wrote in a memo earlier this month that revisiting the bills now would help send a pro-energy message to voters this fall.
Democrats on the panel blasted their counterparts for holding a new round of votes on the bills and for sending them to the floor in a closed rule that blocked any proposed amendments.
The committee voted down two amendments offered by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) that would have cut subsidies to oil and gas companies and reinstated the tax credits for wind power.
"This is election season, and [Republicans] are engaged in their messaging," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). "Every single one of the bills in these pieces of legislation have passed the House and gone nowhere."
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said the proposals would give the Department of Energy authority to veto EPA rules, force federal agencies to ignore the costs of climate change and override decades-long environmental regulations.
"In this Congress, time after time, we've seen legislation harmful to our environment brought to the floor," Schakowsky said.
The "American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act" also drew a rebuke from the White House, which threatened to veto the legislation if it came before President Obama.
The bill "purports to promote and increase the Nation's energy security," the Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. But it "would undermine energy security and endanger human health and the environment," OMB said.
Still, industry groups praised the measure, which includes a proposal by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) to expedite approval of liquefied natural gas exports.
Passing the bill would send "a clear signal that the United States is committed to its role as a global energy leader," said Bill Cooper, president of the Center for Liquefied Natural Gas.
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