American Energy Innovation Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, on Tuesday, just a few days ago, I convened a hearing of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and we were focused on the impacts of COVID-19 and how this pandemic has impacted our Nation's energy industry. We had a lot of discussions about the impact of COVID on the Nation, on our economy, and I think it is probably fair to say that every facet of our society has been impacted, but it is certainly clear to me as a Senator for the State of Alaska and as chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the energy sector has suffered perhaps uniquely and I think acutely.

We have seen limits on business and travel and social activities, and we think about those limitations, the far-reaching consequences they have on our Nation's energy producers, whether it is those who produce oil and gas, coal, renewables, advanced technology such as nuclear power, and all those who help us produce our energy and use our energy more efficiently, all aspects have been impacted.

At the hearing, we had some pretty good testimony that our witnesses were able to explain and quantify some of those impacts. We heard that U.S. oil production has declined by almost 2 million barrels per day. Spot prices for liquefied natural gas have effectively collapsed, creating challenges for export projects. Domestic electricity consumption is projected to decline by 5.7 percent this year, largely due to the closure of businesses and, of course, the shelter-in-place orders.

It is not just the oil and gas sector. The renewable energy sector has also faced substantial supply chain disruptions. The efficiency sector has faced health and safety restrictions in homes and buildings. Overall, we were told that the energy industry has lost an estimated 1.3 million jobs since early March, including more than 600,000 jobs associated with clean energy.

It is a good reminder in terms of where we have seen this direct impact and the impact on jobs, but our hearing was also a reminder that the energy industry can be a key leader, be a sector that can really help lead our Nation's economic recovery.

When you think about energy itself, this is a finished product. It is a feedstock. It is a raw material. It is an input. It is an output. It is value added, a natural resource, tradeable commodity, a precious asset. It is clearly critical infrastructure and emergency reserves. It is financial, collateral, and competitive exports. It is a source of high-paying and high-skilled jobs in its own right.

I think we recognize that current low prices are good for us. We are seeing our families pay less and, thus, they can devote to other priorities. The underlying message here is the energy industry is an important component to how we move to this phase of economic recovery. What can we do to help this industry and, thus, the broader economy recovery?

It was interesting because we had a panel of five witnesses before us. Several of those witnesses all pointed to the same piece of legislation as one of the answers as to how we can help the economy recover, and that is a bill that those of us on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee developed throughout last year. We called it the American Energy Innovation Act. We refer to it as our energy bill. It will ensure that the United States remains a global energy leader while strengthening our national security, investing in clean technologies, and securing our Nation's supply chain.

It is a pretty wide-ranging bill. It covers everything from energy efficiency to renewables. We have a strong focus on carbon capture. The big anchor piece is energy storage. Advanced nuclear plays a key role and also vehicle technologies. We focused on mineral security and recognizing the key aspects of secure supply chains, grid and cyber security, workforce modernization. Really, it is all areas that will work to help our economy, boost our international competitiveness, and protect human health and the global environment.

At the hearing on Tuesday, one of our witnesses described this energy bill, our American Energy Innovation Act, as ``foundational.'' I really think it is foundational.

Where are we with this foundational energy bill that has been the work of such a good, strong collaborative committee process? It was clearly timely for the Senate to be considering this in this year-- certainly before the pandemic--and it is even more critical, more timely that we consider it now.

When we had an opportunity to bring this to the floor earlier, there was a desire and an interest in making sure that we were focusing on our clean and renewable energy sector. We do that within that bill.

It has been interesting because in the past several weeks, we have heard calls from Members of this body to prioritize a robust clean energy recovery plan. There was a letter from 24 Members of the Senate who urged Senate leadership to ``prioritize a robust clean energy recovery plan.'' In their letter, they call for investments in renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, clean vehicles, clean and efficient infrastructure, clean fuels, and workforce development. That sounds pretty much like what we included within our American Energy Innovation Act.

I sent many of them just a quick letter detailing how our bill really does accomplish just that, including the specifics that focus on each of these priorities, and encourage them to help me pass it.

As you may recall, we had the American Energy Innovation Act on the Senate floor at the end of February just before the pandemic took hold. Again, I mentioned the collaborative process that went into building that bill. We spent a lot of time in the Energy Committee working through a lot of the issues that had some conflict and to reduce that conflict so we could get a good, strong bipartisan product. As a consequence, we have a bill that contains the priorities for more than 70 Senators. It is supported by more than 200 organizations. We incorporated 18 amendments on the floor working through that process.

The Senate ultimately denied cloture on March 9. This was just before the shelter in place and the work from home orders began. We hit a wall there. The unfortunate reality is we hit that wall. We were derailed with this important legislative effort not because of an impasse that we had with the contents of our bill, but it was an unrelated dispute from another committee. It was not something that, as chairman, I could have anticipated. There was no warning that it was going to be an issue for our bill. In fairness, we didn't have any power as the Energy and Natural Resources Committee to work it out for this other committee. We were hamstrung by it.

Effectively, what happened then was a year of good, strong committee work by the Energy Committee is now being held hostage in a fight in another committee. I have been patient with this, but I would remind colleagues that we are not getting any more extra legislative days being added. The clock is ticking here. This is a matter that, again, when this came before us while we were on this floor trying to work out the last of the amendments, this came up at the last minute, and we were promised a resolution at that time. We will have this fixed in a month. Well, it has been over 3 months now since this became an issue. Again, we have lost valuable time.

This issue from the EPW Committee is holding back a strong, bipartisan bill that would allow us to modernize our Nation's energy policies for the first time in more than a dozen years.

In a week where I have certainly been reminded about the importance of energy and, again, heard good, strong support for our energy bill, I would tell my colleagues that we need to redouble our efforts on this to advance this bill. We need to unlock this energy bill, which is a good bill that is ready to go, from the complications that have been created within another committee.

I like to pride myself on being a pretty good team player around here. I want to give people space to work their issues out, but I think it is time, again, for those who are able to hold the key to this to help us unlock this so we can move a significant priority--not just for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee but a significant priority for every Member in this Chamber because it doesn't make any difference if you are a Republican or a Democrat, if you come from an urban area or a rural area, when it comes to the strength of our Nation's economy, the foundational interest here, the foundations rest solidly on energy.

So an opportunity to update and modernize our energy policies in a way that benefits us all is something that I would hope we can all agree to. I want to get this bill moving.

We had a win this week that originated in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee when it comes to some of our land and conservation measures. The Great American Outdoors Act passed by a strong margin. It was the work of a lot of good people, but both measures, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, as well as the Restore Our Parks Act, began with the good work of a committee working together to move those pieces of legislation through the committee process. It is not perfect, in my view, but I knew these were good policies that many Members across both sides of the aisle wanted to place a priority on.

Let's figure out how we can make something like that happen. I am proud of the fact that we can move good initiatives through this committee.

I will just remind you we have another good initiative that we are ready to go on

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