The leaders of the Senate energy panel released a bill Wednesday that includes measures to promote energy efficiency and protect the electric grid from cyber threats, but avoids the controversial issue of lifting a ban on exporting U.S. oil.

The bill was drafted by both Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the Republican chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Maria Cantwell, the panel’s top Democrat. A similar bill is advancing in the Republican-led House.

“This represents the universe of where there is bipartisan agreement,” Robert Dillon, a Republican spokesman for the Senate committee, said.

Congress hasn’t passed major energy legislation since 2007, as the parties have clashed over renewable energy commitments and projects like the Keystone XL pipeline to link Canadian heavy crude with U.S. refineries.

The bill, which the committee will begin debating on July 28 and may vote on later that week, is the common ground Murkowski and Cantwell found over 114 energy bills the committee considered in four hearings. It contains provisions to promote energy conservation, speed action on applications to export natural gas and asserts that the nation’s stockpile of petroleum should be kept for emergencies.

Since the 1970s, Congress has largely prohibited sales of crude exports to countries other than Canada. Murkowski has said the ban should be lifted, given the rise in domestic oil production, but Cantwell says the issue needs to be studied further.

Cybersecurity Tools

Dillon said Murkowski remains committed to advancing legislation to lift the restrictions but doesn’t plan to do so as part of the bill released Wednesday.

The legislation would direct the Energy Department to issue new federal building efficiency standards, and research, develop and demonstrate new cybersecurity protection tools.

It tweaks an Energy Department loan guarantee program to require companies to potentially pay more up front as a hedge against default, and requires new studies on grid reliability.

It would also require the secretary of the Energy Department to issue a final decision on applications to export liquefied natural gas within 45 days after projects have won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The FERC looks at safety issues, while the Energy Department is responsible for studying the market impacts of new exports.

The bill reasserts that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stockpile of nearly 700 million barrels of oil, should be used only in emergencies.

A separate Senate proposal would sell off 101 million barrels of oil to raise $9 billion to help pay for a six-year highway bill. Murkowski in a statement called the idea shortsighted.

Source: www.bloomberg.com

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