Senate Democrats outline broad energy goals to nation’s governors

Forty-five US Senate Democrats outlined broad energy policy goals including more clean energy technology investments, infrastructure improvement, and carbon pollution reduction in a letter seeking support from the nation’s governors.

“Your feedback will help us collectively craft a path forward on an energy policy that unleashes America’s limitless capacity for innovation, rewards middle-class families for making smart energy choices, and keeps our air and water clean for generations to come,” Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Minority Member Maria E. Cantwell (Wash.), and 43 other Senate Democrats said in their June 29 letter.

Their call for more clean energy investments included low-carbon fossil fuels as well as renewable technology, storage, and advanced grid systems. The nation’s infrastructure should be modernized to make it more reliable and resilient with a safe structure from physical and cybersecurity threats, they recommended. Business and individual consumers should be able to make their own energy choices, they said.

“We must cut pollution and end needless waste in both the way we use energy, and in the way in which governments execute our energy policy objectives,” the Senate Democrats said. “Finally, we must continue to make foundational investments in the research and development that ensure US businesses will successfully compete in growing global markets for new energy products and services.”

Their letter came less than a month before the National Governors Association holds its 2015 summer meeting July 23-26 in West Virginia. US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) has made passage of comprehensive energy legislation her top priority for this year.

“We recognize that the success of our efforts to address today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities will continue to rely on a foundational partnership between federal policymakers and states,” the Senate Democrats told the governors. “As such, we seek your input on policies consistent with these shared principles, to help guide our consideration of reasonable, common-sense updates to our nation’s energy policy.”

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].