Overnight Energy: Senators look for path forward on energy bill

MORE AMENDMENTS: Senate leadership is working its way through nearly 200 amendments to the chamber’s energy reform bill this week.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a bill cosponsor and the chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Monday that members should expect many amendments to hit the floor this week after lawmakers approved 11 last Wednesday and Thursday.

“Eleven is a good number, but honestly I had hoped that we would have been able to process more amendments last week,” she said in a floor speech. “I want to move forward and process even more over these next couple days.”

{mosads}Senators last week approved amendments related to nuclear energy research, funding for advanced energy and a report on crude oil exports.

Most of the amendments brought to the floor last week won broad bipartisan support, but there are high profile and potentially contentious measures that could still come up now.

Michigan Democrats and others want a major aid package for Flint, Mich., for example, and California’s members are pushing an amendment for a federal response to a methane leak in the state.

Republicans hope the bill can maintain the bipartisan support it enjoyed in committee.

“Let’s keep working to move this process forward. Let’s keep working to pass this bipartisan bill,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday.

Read more here.

ANTI-ETHANOL FORCES ALREADY DECLARING VICTORY IN IOWA: A group opposed to the federal ethanol mandate is already claiming victory of sorts in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.

The group, the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF), ON Monday highlighted polling and negative press against the role of ethanol as an election issue in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Groups on both sides of the issue have looked to make ethanol a major political issue in Iowa, the top ethanol state in the country. But an ACCF poll last month showed its importance waning among Iowa voters. That conclusion was seemingly backed up in this weekend’s final Des Moines Register poll, which found that Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad’s opposition to Ted Cruz’s ethanol platform was not a difference-maker for 77 percent of GOP voters there.

“I think a clear message coming out of Iowa is that whatever political influence ethanol used to have in the state, those days are now over,” said ACCF executive vice president George David Banks.

ON TAP TUESDAY I: The Senate continues debating its energy reform bill. Debate on the bill picked back up on Monday night, and amendment votes could resume as early as Tuesday.

ON TAP TUESDAY II: The House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on the Paris climate deal. Members will hear from industry experts on the agreement, which Republicans proclaim in the hearing’s title to be a “Bad Deal for America.”

Rest of Tuesday’s agenda …

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a hearing on eight energy infrastructure bills. The list can be found here.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will speak at a Wilson Center event on the Iranian nuclear deal.

AROUND THE WEB:

Duke Energy is asking North Carolina regulators to work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Clean Power Plan carbon reduction compliance, the Charlotte Business Journal reports.

General Electric Co. will phase out compact fluorescent lightbulbs by the end of the year in favor of LED bulbs, the New York Times reports.

A columnist for The Star writes that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to Alberta this week is “the most important domestic trip in his short life” because of economic and political concerns in the energy-rich province.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out stories from Monday and this weekend…

-Liz Cheney sets sights on Obama’s green rules
-Public interest groups step up pressure on toxic chemical reform
-GOP looks for path forward on energy bill amendments
-Kentucky coal output hits six-decade low
-Climate activists target Pepsi ahead of Super Bowl halftime show
-Feds to review environmental impact of offshore fracking
-Week ahead: Senate aims to wrap up energy reform bill
-Oregon death is latest flashpoint for militias, feds
-Cruz blasts Branstad on ethanol mandate
-Election-year energy sweeps the Senate
-Clinton: GOP disbelieves climate change because of Koch brothers

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