Senate Passes Energy Policy Bill That Was Stalled by Flint

The Senate passed, 85-12, an energy policy modernization bill on Wednesday that was stalled for months by Democrats' efforts to use the measure as leverage for a package of federal spending to address the drinking water crisis in Flint, Mich. The bill (S 2012) is the first broad energy policy bill passed by the Senate since 2007. It provides for modest policy changes that could win bipartisan support, including streamlining the permitting for liquefied natural gas exports, mandating improvements to the electric grid's reliability and security, raising energy efficiency standards for commercial and federal buildings, and permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It now faces reconciliation with a more ideological House-passed energy bill (HR 8), and a short calendar for getting it done. The White House threatened to veto the House bill over measures that it said would derail the Obama administration's agenda to reduce climate-warming carbon emissions from fossil fuels...more

And it includes two new wilderness areas in NM, compliments of Senator Heinrich.