Sustainable Energy Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Sustainable Energy Act - Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to repeal the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to reduce or eliminate royalty payments for oil and natural gas leases in the Outer Continental Shelf.
Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to increase minimum royalty payments for coal, oil, and natural gas leases.
Repeals the program for ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resource exploration and production.
Amends the Oil Pollution Act to eliminate the limitation on liability for offshore facilities and pipeline operators for oil spills.
Rescinds all unobligated balances made available to the World Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Export-Import Bank, the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Department of Energy (DOE), and other international financing entities to carry out any project that supports coal, oil, or natural gas.
Terminates the Office of Fossil Energy Research and Development in DOE and the authority to carry out any of its programs.
Amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to eliminate from the categories of projects eligible for loan guarantees for innovative technologies: (1) projects involving advanced fossil energy technology, and (2) and crude oil refineries.
Prohibits the Secretary of Agriculture from making loans under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to carry out projects that will use coal, oil, or natural gas.
Prohibits the use of Department of Transportation (DOT) funds to award any grant or other direct assistance to any rail or port project that transports coal, oil, or natural gas.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) limit or repeal provisions allowing tax incentives for investment in fossil fuels; (2) extend, through 2020, tax incentives for the production of electricity from renewable resources and the energy tax credit for alternative energy sources; and (3) extend, for a five-year period, allocations of the advanced energy project tax credit.
Increases the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund financing rate.
The summary continues for 2 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on February 14, 2013. 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 February 14, 2013: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- 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 113th Congress (2013-14), 296 of the 9,091 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.3 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?
Bernard Sanders (I-VT) introduced it on February 14, 2013. No cosponsors are recorded.
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 February 14, 2013, 5003 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 5003 days ago, on February 14, 2013.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 113th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2015 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