March 02, 2020

This Week: Senate to Take Up Manchin’s American Energy Innovation Act

Washington, D.C. – Last week, after a full year of hearings, business meetings, and bipartisan negotiations, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, released the text of their energy innovation package. The full Senate will take up the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA) this week. The AEIA is an all-of-the-above approach to our energy future that brings together innovative solutions that will keep our energy affordable and reliable and protect our grid while reducing emissions across the economy and strengthening our position as a global leader.

“This legislation is the result of strong bipartisan work with my colleagues on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to make a down payment on emissions-reducing technologies, reassert the United States’ leadership role in global markets, enhance our grid security, and protect consumers. Importantly, this bill will connect energy-producing communities, including in states like West Virginia and Alaska, to new markets and job opportunities while laying the groundwork for the Department of Energy to advance new and necessary critical emissions-reducing technologies,” Ranking Member Manchin said.

“This bill is our best chance to modernize our nation’s energy policies in more than 12 years,” Chairman Murkowski said. “By working together to pass it into law, we can promote a range of emerging technologies that will help keep energy affordable even as it becomes cleaner and cleaner. Our bill also addresses national needs by taking overdue steps to enhance our cybersecurity, grid security, and mineral security. I’m proud of the bipartisan work we have done and encourage all members of the Senate to work with us to advance it through the legislative process.”

The key provisions in the AEIA focus on energy efficiency; renewable energy; energy storage; carbon capture, utilization, and storage; advanced nuclear; industrial and vehicle technologies; the Department of Energy; mineral security, cyber and grid security and modernization; and workforce development.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held legislative hearings and business meetings throughout 2019 and, following regular order, reported more than 50 energy-related bills to the full Senate on an individual basis. Most of those measures have now been compiled in the AEIA.

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 2657, a Murkowski-Manchin geothermal research and development bill that will serve as the legislative vehicle for the bipartisan energy innovation package. When a vote on the motion to proceed to S. 2657 is successful, Manchin and Murkowski will offer a substitute amendment featuring the full text of the AEIA.

For the full bill text, please click here. For a summary, please click here.