By Ben Geman and Zack Colman
STATE OF PLAY: Senate Republicans and a powerful business group will push a pro-drilling agenda with separate events on Thursday.
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) will roll out energy legislation that’s backed by Senate GOP leaders. The plan will require increased onshore oil-and-gas leasing and authorize the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, among other provisions.
Click here for more on the bill, which Hoeven will tout at a midday press conference with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others.
Speaking of drilling, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) unveiled a separate plan Wednesday that would mandate a major expansion of offshore oil-and-gas leasing, going far beyond the narrower White House plans.
Murkowski attracted a trio of centrist Democrats on her bill, but neither her plan nor Hoeven’s (which Murkowski supports) will move this year. They are, however, at least a partial roadmap for the GOP energy agenda if Republicans re-take the Senate.
Off Capitol Hill, the energy arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Thursday will launch what it calls a major campaign to “highlight the vast potential of shale energy.”
The Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy will hold a press conference with industry and business representatives from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.
“Tomorrow, the Chamber will hold a national launch for a new campaign that will bring the voice of the broader business community to the shale energy debate,” a spokesman said.
Use of hydraulic fracturing to tap big supplies of natural gas and oil from shale formations is fueling a U.S. production boom, but bringing pollution fears along with it.