WASHINGTON, DC -Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) delivered the following remarks at today’s meeting of the Senate and House Conferees on S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016. Included in the House amendment to S. 2012 were several committee provisions that have already passed the House, including H.R. 8, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act. H.R. 8 originated out of the committee and is a comprehensive energy bill aimed at modernizing our energy laws for the 21st century.
More information on committee provisions within S.2012 can be found online HERE. For a list of all Energy and Commerce Committee members on the Conference Committee, click HERE.Today marks an important milestone in the ongoing effort to advance a comprehensive energy package that says yes to energy and yes to jobs. I would like to thank all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol for their hard work that has laid the groundwork. We are moving in the right direction for sure.
Fortunately, this energy bill conference is unlike previous ones - we are not here trying to address concerns about energy scarcity, high prices, and dependence on imports. Thanks to private sector innovations leading to increased domestic oil and gas output, the script has been flipped, and Congress can now approach energy issues from a position of strength.
But that is not to say that there aren’t problems that need to be addressed. We need to update existing federal energy programs that reflect the state of energy markets and technology today. Many policies based on energy scarcity are simply no longer appropriate, and efforts to expand the nation’s energy infrastructure have run up against old permitting regimes that are not up to the task.
This Congress, we’ve seen one such successful energy policy update in lifting the 40-year-old ban on oil exports. Provisions ending the obsolete ban on exports of American oil were originally part of the House energy bill, but were signed into law separately late last year. And now we’re beginning to see the benefits of those exports through the creation of jobs, improvement in our balance of trade, and competition with Russia and Iran and others who used to dominate oil markets.
We can extend that success to LNG exports in this energy bill by including provisions streamlining the approval of natural gas export facilities. But energy exports are only one facet of our national energy policy that needs to be brought into the 21st century. We must ensure that any package recognizes the need for responsible development of needed infrastructure and contains permit reforms that will bring accountability to the federal and state decision makers who are tasked with approving new and modified projects. We also need to balance new efficiency provisions with the market’s ability to meet consumer demands for more efficient and affordable products.
Some folks said we’d never make it to sitting around the table together, yet here we are. Let’s continue the momentum. Related Items
* Meeting of Senate and House Conferees on S. 2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016
