July 12, 2016

Manchin Statement on Advancement of Comprehensive Energy Bill to Conference Committee

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) released the following statement after the Senate voted to advance the Energy Policy Modernization Act to Conference Committee. Included in the bill are four of Senator Manchin’s measures that comprise the entirety of the bill’s coal title and focus on promoting an all-of-the-above energy policy.

“We have not had a major energy bill since 2005, so I am pleased that Congress is moving this process forward and sending this comprehensive energy bill to conference committee. I encourage all of my colleagues to support the critical measures I included in the Senate bill that ensure it is truly comprehensive. It is crucial for America’s continued success that we establish an all-of-the-above energy portfolio that utilizes all of our domestic resources and we must face the fact that coal will play an integral role in producing our electricity for decades to come.”

Senator Manchin included the following amendments in the Energy Policy Modernization Act:

  • Section 3401: Adds “Improving the conversion, use and storage of carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuels” as an objective to the Fossil Energy program of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to ensure a refocus on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) of CO2 at the Department Energy’s Fossil Energy program.  
  • Section 3402: Raises and continues the Coal Technology Program budget authorization to $632 million per year through FY2020 and $582 million in FY2021.  Specifically, $275 million fossil energy R&D program; $285 million for large scale pilot demonstration programs; and $50 million for demonstration project program.
  • Section 4003:  Mandates a GAO study on fossil loan guarantee incentive programs to ensure that the loan guarantee program is effective and evaluate the impact and costs of implementing the recommendations in the January 2015 National Coal Council report entitled ‘‘Fossil Forward: Revitalizing CCS, Bringing Scale and Speed to CCS Deployment’’ on the effectiveness of the advanced fossil loan guarantee program.
  • Manchin Amendment #3270 was included and establishes a $22 million authorization for engineering net negative CO2 emission large-scale pilot projects from FY2017 through FY 2021; it covers bituminous, sub-bituminous and lignite coals. 

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