Despite the election, Congress can still make bipartisan progress on energy

Conventional wisdom holds that legislating in a presidential election year is nearly impossible, as political primaries and partisanship ramp up. So, expectations for progress on energy and climate issues within the stakeholder community are generally low for this year. 

But this is not a hard rule. There have been notable exceptions, even as recently as the Energy Act of 2020 — and it turns out that conditions in 2024 indicate some major energy issues have the potential to leverage bipartisan support and slip across the finish line. These include the pending farm bill, energy permitting reform, natural gas infrastructure, advanced nuclear legislation, carbon border adjustment measures and others.

Passing a 2024 Farm Bill should be a top priority for both parties, focusing on conservation and climate-smart practices that can provide new revenues for farmers. Supporting America’s farmers and forest landowners is critical as they innovate their practices with climate-smart techniques that deliver multiple benefits, including enhanced resilience, economic opportunities for farmers and foresters and more stored carbon in working lands and forests. 

The Farm Bill can also help the U.S. recapture our leadership in innovation through agricultural research and development, for which public funding has declined by one-third over the last two decades and now lags behind China and Europe. Next-generation technologies and techniques are needed to boost productivity and safeguard the resources that farmers depend upon.

After years of division, energy permitting reform has become a major economic priority on both sides of the aisle. Committee leaders like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), as well as House committee chairs Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) are all indicating they believe reforms can be enacted this Congress. 

Republicans deserve credit for pushing the issue for many years as a way to reduce consumer costs and increase economic growth, while Democrats increasingly appreciate that such reforms, especially in electricity transmission and renewable infrastructure, are crucial for accelerating clean energy deployment. These combined goals can create the glue for a deal that involves significant reforms on pipeline and transmission permitting rules along with improvements to judicial review.

American natural gas continues to be a huge benefit to our economy: lowering consumer and manufacturing costs, displacing higher-emitting coal and enabling greater amounts of intermittent renewable energy to successfully operate on our electricity grid. Liquified natural gas exports are helping our allies in Europe break their addiction to Russian gas, limiting revenue for the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine, while substantially improving America’s balance of trade.  

But pushback from some environmentalists has politicized gas, creating uncertainty for developers and investors. The Biden administration’s announcement that it is pausing approval of new export terminals pending a review of their climate and economic impacts is case in point. Such an assessment is prudent but should be conducted by our government experts prior to such a consequential policy decision and outside of election-year politics.

Congress should ensure natural gas resources will be available for years to come as part of the clean energy transition by helping to limit fugitive methane leaks, supporting pipeline infrastructure and advancing the decarbonization of the fuel over time.

Bipartisan congressional action is likely on tax credits important for energy research and development. A tax agreement announced by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) includes R&D tax provisions that will provide energy businesses, including startups, incentives to invest more in bringing new clean technologies to commercialization. The provisions restore full and immediate expensing for business research and development expenditures and may be approved by Congress within weeks.  

Building on bipartisan action from last year, additional advanced nuclear legislation is also poised for legislative success, which has the potential to play a critical role in helping the U.S. improve its energy security and sustain a clean, resilient electricity grid.

Finally, members of Congress from both parties are frustrated that while the U.S. is making strides to cut greenhouse emissions, other countries, especially China, have economies whose emissions are still growing quickly. Indeed, China’s annual carbon dioxide emissions are now more than double those of the United States.

There is growing interest across a broad set of political and stakeholder perspectives to explore ways to take advantage of the fact that American manufacturing is among the cleanest in the world, especially compared to China. 

The PROVE IT Act sponsored by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) would gather official government data to prove what we already know: U.S. products are more carbon-efficient than those of our major trading partners. The legislation was just approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committeewith bipartisan support. Data gained through the bill would help the U.S. with trade negotiations and also act as a pushback against taxes that could be imposed by a European carbon border adjustment.

In addition to this commonsense legislation, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have each introduced bills to apply carbon tariffs on dirtier imports. 

The coming year is sure to be tumultuous, with a complicated leadership situation in the House and a divisive presidential election looming. The congressional calendar may be consumed by larger political forces and legislative progress could grind to a halt. However, each of the issues outlined above could see progress before Election Day or even in a post-election “lame-duck” session.

American consumers, businesses, workers and voters all want more affordable, abundant and cleaner energy. This Congress still has the opportunity to act on these issues and deliver for voters.

Sasha Mackler is executive director of the Energy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center.