Nation Needs Energy Bill with Production, Not Mandates

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today made the following remarks at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee markup regarding the lack of real energy production in the energy bill:

 

“At previous business meetings, this committee has made good progress toward drafting a bipartisan energy bill. However, this week, as we have started to tackle the topics where there’s more divergence, the amount of real work that will be needed to find consensus has become clear. 

 

“For example, I am disappointed that we were unable to find agreement on a real path forward for nuclear waste earlier in the week.

 

“Today, we will begin the process of considering a renewable portfolio standard.  The 50 amendments filed demonstrate the diversity of views on this issue from both sides of the aisle. Adopting this language is a priority for the chairman, but there are equally strong opposing views held by members of the committee on both sides of the aisle. 

 

“With regard to this nation’s energy future, I believe we all share similar overall goals – clean, abundant, affordable energy. However, we do disagree on how to get there.

 

“To this end, each member of this committee has their own priorities. Mine include, among other things that have not yet been addressed, strong oil and gas production measures, and support for clean-coal technologies.

 

“I appreciate the chairman’s commitment that each member of the committee will be provided the opportunity to have their priorities considered for inclusion in this bill. At the end of this process, it’s my hope that every member of this committee will find the sum total of all of these deliberations is something they can support. 

 

“However, each of us will have to make a final determination regarding whether the positives outweigh the negatives, based on our own priorities. 

 

“A true balance for the complete package – one that will result in a bill that can be reported out of this committee on a bipartisan basis – is likely to be precarious and difficult to maintain. However,  I look forward to working with all of our committee members to try to find that balance.”