U.S. Congress ended a busy week with a series of divisive energy proposals and a federal budget bill.
• The Guaranteeing Reliability through the Interconnection of Dispatchable Power Act, or GRID Act, requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to update its approval process for grid connection requests for new power generation projects. Support for the measure was split along party lines, with Republicans touting it as a way to improve the reliability of the nation’s power grids, and Democrats decrying it as an attack on clean energy that makes it harder for green energy projects to be approved.
Bill passed the House 216-205. Hawai‘i Reps Jill Tokuda and Ed Case voted against.
• The Promoting Cross-border Energy Infrastructure Act establishes a new process for approving or revoking permits to build and operate energy infrastructure across the U.S.-Canada or U.S.-Mexico borders.
This new process would only require people to obtain a certificate of crossing from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to develop oil- or natural-gas-related facilities, removing existing requirements for the U.S. State Department to sign off on such facilities. Wind or solar energy projects would still require State Department approval, leading again to opposition by Democrats, who argued that the bill is an effort to strangle clean energy efforts.
Republican supporters argued that the bill is needed to avoid situations like the Keystone X.L. pipeline, a proposed 327-mile transcontinental oil pipeline that President Donald Trump approved in 2017 but President Joe Biden shut down on his first day in office. Had there been fewer regulatory hurdles, supporters reasoned, construction could have started during Trump’s first term.
Bill passed the House 224-203. Tokuda and Case voted against.
• The National Coal Council Reestablishment Act, as the name suggests, reestablishes the National Coal Council, a federal advisory committee that lapsed in 2021. However the bill also sets an exception that would make it impossible to lapse in the future: a requirement for federal advisory committees to be re-chartered every two years would not be applied to the Coal Council.
Democrats accused the bill of clearly and unfairly applying favoritism to coal companies. Republicans countered that coal is a reliable energy source necessary to maintain energy viability amid rising costs.
Bill passed the House 217-209. Tokuda and Case voted against.
• The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act provides funds for various federal agencies and federal security details. Notable among its provisions are a series of cuts to healthcare spending, as outlined in Trump’s previous “Big Beautiful Bill,” which were the basis for Democrat opposition.
Bill passed the House 217-212. Tokuda and Case voted against.
On the other side of Congress, the Senate unanimously passed The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act on Thursday, which reauthorizes various substance abuse treatment programs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the 2030 fiscal year.
