S-2089 : Still Just a Bill

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.