Energy Legislation: Comparable Provisions in S. 2012 as Passed by the House and Senate	
Released: 2016-07-22T00:00:00

Introduction

On September 9, 2015, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources reported S. 2012 , the Energy Policy Modernization Act, a major energy bill with provisions addressing energy efficiency, critical infrastructure, energy supplies (fossil, renewable, and nuclear), energy financing and markets, and critical minerals, among other topics. The Senate passed S. 2012 on April 20, 2016.

On May 25, 2016, the House passed an amended version of S. 2012 which contains the text of H.R. 8 , as well as the text of several other energy and natural resources-related bills. The following day, the House moved to insist upon its amendment, and to appoint conferees to resolve the differences in S. 2012 . On July 12, the Senate agreed to the request for a conference, and appointed conferees.

In addition to energy policy provisions, both versions of S. 2012 contain many natural resources and environmental provisions including provisions on fish and wildlife recreation and federal land conveyances. The Senate version includes permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and reauthorization of EPA's Brownfields Program, while the House version includes provisions on National Forest management and drought relief.

The House-passed bill would have eliminated restrictions on the export of U.S.-produced crude oil. However, this provision was included in the FY2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act ( P.L. 114-113 ).

The House-passed bill also includes provisions on the physical security of the electric grid. Two of these provisions—on critical electric infrastructure security and a strategic transformer reserve—were included in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act ( P.L. 114-94 ).

This report provides a side-by-side table identifying comparable and non-comparable provisions in the House and Senate-passed versions of S. 2012 , provisions that may be addressed in conference. The first part of the table lists the provisions in the Senate version of S. 2012 in section order in the left column, with any comparable House provisions in the right column. The second part of the table (beginning on page 16) lists the provisions from the House version in section order in the right column, with any comparable Senate provisions in the left column.

For a discussion of key energy and natural resources topics in the two bills, see CRS Report R44291, Energy Legislation: Comparison of Selected Provisions in H.R. 8 and S. 2012 .

Comparable Provisions