USA:

Senate Panel to Break Ground on Comprehensive Energy Bill in “Next Week or Two” (Morning Consult)

Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is running full throttle at comprehensive energy reform and could put “pen to paper in the next week or two” to draft legislative language, according to Robert Dillon, a committee spokesperson for the Republicans.

Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, the top Democrat on the panel, said in an interview yesterday that she is working “every day” with Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to hammer out the details, and hinted a draft measure would be introduced sooner rather than later. “We’re always working on it,” she said.

Cantwell was instrumental in passing the Energy and Security Independence Act of 2007, Congress’ last successful attempt at sending a comprehensive energy bill to the White House. But with the shale oil boom, an aging fleet of nuclear reactors, the decline of coal and faster-than-excepted advancements in renewables, the energy landscape is markedly different today, spurring bipartisan support for a new national energy policy.

Cantwell and Murkowski are leading that charge in their pursuit to strike a balance between abundant, affordable, clean, diverse and secure energy.

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