Summary of Flake Amendments to Senate Energy Bill
Washington, DC – U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee, today offered the following 11 amendments to the Energy Policy Modernization Act, a major energy bill now under debate in the Senate:
· SA #3057 Hydropower Reservoir Operation Improvement - Cosponsored by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.): Directs the re-evaluation of flood control operations at up to 15 facilities (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, or non-federal) in order to use up-to-date forecasting methods and hydrology to enhance water storage, which in turn safeguards hydropower production during dry years.
· SA #3056 Review of Potentially Duplicative Green Building Programs - Cosponsored by U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.): Amends Sec. 1020, consistent with U.S. Government Accountability Office’s recommendation, to expand the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) review to all 94 potentially duplicative green building programs that span 11 federal agencies.
· SA #3054 National Park Access Act - Cosponsored by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.): Authorizes the National Park Service to refund its shutdown windfall to the six states (Ariz., Colo., N.Y., S.D., Tenn., and Utah) that paid approximately $2 million to keep national parks open during the 2013 shutdown. The ENR Committee favorably reported the measure by voice vote in the 113th (S.2104) and 114th (S.145) Congresses.
· SA #3055 WAPA Searchable Database Pilot Project - Cosponsored by McCain: Requires the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) to establish a pilot project online database of its budgetary costs and rates broken down by power system (region) and customer services office (headquarters). Some WAPA customers have sought better transparency and accountability regarding WAPA’s budget and rates, while WAPA has indicated that it spends significant resources responding to customer “data calls”. This amendment seeks to bridge that gap by increasing transparency and reducing administrative costs.
· SA #3052 Pause the 1603 Grant Program - Cosponsored by McCain and U.S. Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.): Prohibits the issuance of 1603 cash grants until the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and the Inspector General of the Treasury complete a comprehensive investigation and report on alleged fraud within the program. In Nov. 2015, Flake, McCain, Lankford, and U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) wrote to Secretary of the Treasury Jacob Lew following up on statements from the Inspectors General (IG) about concerns with the 1603 program. The Department of the Treasury has not responded to the letter, and the IGs have yet to release a comprehensive report.
· SA #3051 Legislative Stay of the CPP: Prohibits implementation of the Clean Power Plan (CPP) while a court reviews the legality of the rule. This would only apply to any legal challenge filed within 60 days after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the CPP in the Federal Register on Oct. 23, 2015. A coalition of states, filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Jan. 26, 2016 arguing: “An immediate stay from this Court is necessary to prevent the irreversible changes and harms that will continue to occur during the D.C. Circuit proceedings, which could stretch well into 2017.” The current deadline for states to file their initial plans is Sept. 6, 2016. Notably, in July 2015, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy responded to the Supreme Court’s finding that EPA had not sufficiently considered the potential costs of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards or MATS rule stating, “The majority of power plants have already decided and invested in a path to achieve compliance with the Mercury Air Toxics Standards.”
· SA #3053 Ratepayer Fairness: Establishes a new Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act standard requiring state regulatory authorities and non-regulated boards to examine whether new policies would result in cost shifts among customers, where a large customer class ends up cross-subsidizing a technology only used by a few customers. Flake introduced this amendment as a standalone bill (S.2384), and U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) successfully offered a substantially similar amendment to the House energy bill (H.R. 8, Section 1107).
· SA #3050 DOE Research Database: Directs the secretary of energy to publish a searchable database of all of the DOE’s research grants, as is already done by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. Likewise, EPMA Sec. 2301 requires the secretary to maintain a public database of all energy storage projects.
· SA #3049 DOD Renewable Energy Project Database: Requires the secretary of defense to submit a report to Congress on renewable energy projects greater than 1 MW installed at military installations, including an analysis of the estimated and actual projects costs, power generation, costs savings, and payback period. It also provides for the non-disclosure of sensitive information, and requires the secretary to update the report one year after the initial report is issued.
· SA #3048 ORDEAL Act—Ozone: Prohibits the EPA from implementing or enforcing a revised standard for ozone until 2018, and it also puts the ozone standard on a true 10-year cycle; pushing off one of the most expensive regulations in EPA history. Flake introduced this amendment as a standalone bill (S. 640) with 13 cosponsors.
· SA #3047 Blender Pump Prohibition: Prohibits the secretary of agriculture from using the Commodity Credit Corporation or any other funds to provide grants or otherwise to support or assist the construction, maintenance, or use of renewable fuel blender pumps, including through the Biofuels Infrastructure Partnership. The use of Rural Energy for America Program grant money for blender pumps was eliminated in the 2014 Farm Bill; however, in May 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the creation of $100 million in grants for ethanol blender pumps under the new “Biofuels Infrastructure Project.” The ethanol blender pump program encourages wasteful subsidies for the corn industries, harms the environment, and damages vehicle engines that use ethanol.
