American Energy Innovation Act
Latest action. Read the second time. Placed on Senate legislative calendarThe list of measures reported out of committee and eligible for floor action. Being on the calendar is not a promise of a vote.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) under General Orders. Calendar No. 241.
American Energy Innovation Act
This bill encourages and establishes requirements concerning:
energy efficiency in the electricity grid, the manufacturing sector, certain vehicles and trucks, buildings, homes, and the federal government;
protection of the bulk-power system from cybersecurity threats;
the security and resiliency of the energy network and applications, including electric, natural gas, and oil exploration, transmission, and delivery;
the modernization of energy infrastructure at the federal and state level;
the development or deployment of alternative energies; and
water conservation measures.
The bill establishes: (1) a nonbinding goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 2% per year on average through 2025, and (2) a federal energy efficiency resource standard for retail electricity and natural gas suppliers.
The bill repeals royalty relief for leases in the Outer Continental Shelf with respect to the production of oil or gas from deep water production or ultra deep wells in shallow waters.
The Department of Interior must: (1) prevent venting and flaring of gases in oil and natural gas production operations on federal land, and (2) promote the capture of beneficial use or reinjection of gas in those operations. Interior must establish an annual production incentive fee with respect to public land that is subject to a lease for production of oil or natural gas under which production is not occurring.
The bill reauthorizes through FY2020 the Department of Energy's: (1) Weatherization Assistance Program, (2) State Energy Program, (3) basic research, and (4) the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The bill also revises and reauthorizes the Water Desalination Act of 1996.
The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) provide tax incentives for producing clean energy and for reducing energy use in homes or commercial buildings, (2) extend through 2017 energy-related tax credits, (3) subject oil derived from tar sands to an excise tax, and (4) repeal certain oil and gas tax subsidies for major integrated oil companies.
The bill: (1) establishes the National Park Service Centennial Fund, and (2) permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Historic Preservation Fund.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on September 28, 2015. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on September 29, 2015: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 241.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced it on September 28, 2015, and 31 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 30 Democrats, 1 independent.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on September 28, 2015, 4000 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 3999 days ago, on September 29, 2015.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers