Senate Majority Leader reiterates commitment to pushing forward US energy reforms
By BusinessGreen staff
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has reiterated his pledge to make energy reforms a central plank of the Democrats’ autumn agenda, insisting energy will emerge as a “signature issue” in the coming months as the party tries to rebuild support following the controversy surrounding the recent debt deal with Republicans.
Speaking on a conference call with reporters yesterday, Reid said Democrats would look to tie energy policy to the administration’s job-creation drive.
“One of the things at the top of the list is energy jobs, and we’re going to see if we can get some co-operation from Republicans so we can make that one of our signature issues over the next couple of months,” he said.
A wide range of potential energy reforms are currently being pursued through various Congressional committees, including Democrat-led proposals for a Clean Energy Standard, Republican plans to relax environmental rules covering oil drilling and mining, and bi-partisan efforts to increase support for electric cars and clean energy research.
Reid refused to be drawn on which energy bills he intended to pursue, but did acknowledge that some of the legislation currently being proposed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee had secured a degree of the bipartisan support any new bill will require to pass.
However, in an indication of the difficulty that Democrats will face pushing through any bill that supports clean energy, Reid criticized the “backwards-leaning House of Representatives”, accusing the Republican-led House of attempting to eviscerate environmental and energy regulations.
(Source: www.businessgreen.com )