Week ahead: Lawmakers dig into energy overhaul

Lawmakers on both the House and Senate Energy committees will focus their attention on a slew of bills that could form the basis for a long-awaited comprehensive energy package.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a Tuesday hearing on many of the 17 energy bills she introduced earlier this month. The chairwoman said those bills could lay the foundation for an energy overhaul, the first such package since 2007.

Twenty-one other bills are also on the hearing’s agenda. But Murkowski’s bill to lift the federal ban on crude oil exports isn’t on that list. She said earlier this week she is still working on a legislative route for the bill, which could be part of the broader energy package or move on its own.

{mosads}House lawmakers will take another crack at the energy overhaul effort on Tuesday as well.

Energy and Commerce’s Energy and Power Subcommittee will consider the draft of an energy reliability and security measure that could be included in a comprehensive reform bill.

The House committee has already held a handful of hearings on other aspects of that legislation, including a hearing last week on hydropower and natural gas regulation.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will testify before that same House subcommittee on Thursday, both on a reform bill and the administration’s April energy infrastructure report. Moniz testified on that same report before the Senate Energy Committee last month.

Elsewhere, the sage grouse saga returns to the House Natural Resources Committee. The panel will hold a Tuesday hearing on state management of the bird, the endangered status of which has stirred debate on Capitol Hill.

The Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing on states’ reaction to federal mountaintop removal regulations on Wednesday.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plans to hear testimony Tuesday on a bill from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) that takes aim at proposed water protection rules from the Environmental Protection Agency. A New Belgium Brewery representative will testify.

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