Energy Strategy
Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. I say to my friend, the Senator from Delaware, yes. In fact, I view this as an opportunity. I view this as a positive direction as we build out an energy policy that works for the entire country.
The Senator's question is specific to my home State of Alaska, an area that is known for its enormous potential with our fossil fuels, our oil, our natural gas, and the opportunities that have been available to a State such as mine where we have the more traditional fossil fuels. But we are also a State that is rich with potential for renewable energy resources whether it is geothermal, whether it is marine hydrokinetic, whether it is ocean energy potential, harnessing the tides, harnessing the waves; whether it is biomass, whether it is wind, which we have abundant capacity for; whether it is solar, which we don't often get a lot of credit for, but, yes, we, too, have solar.
So from my perspective as a Senator from Alaska, I am looking to try to find those areas where we can branch out, where we can move the energy discussion to what we are all talking about now, which is an ``all of the above'' policy. In order to truly have an ``all of the above'' policy and to avoid picking winners and losers, as the Senator from Delaware has noted, then it is important that when we talk about how we finance these energy projects--and we all know there are considerable dollars at stake with any energy project--then let's work to provide a level of parity, and that is exactly what this bill does.
My hat goes off to the Senator from Delaware. His leadership on this bipartisan measure is extremely important. I can recall when the Senator first came to talk to me about it, and I said: We need to really do wholesome tax reform. I haven't changed my mind on that. But what I have recognized is that if we are to work to build out our energy sector, if we are to work to advance our ``all of the above'' policy, then we need to be a little more expansive in how we are going to look to the financing opportunities.
So I agreed to join the Senator from Delaware as a cosponsor of the Master Limited Partnership Parity Act because fundamentally, at its base, it is about fairness and opportunity. That is a pretty good place to be sitting.
I think too often in this Nation debates about our energy policy kind of devolve into this advocacy where we show preferential treatment for one sector or another sector. As the Senator from Delaware and I have discussed, I am absolutely an advocate for an ``all of the above'' approach. I have spelled that out in a blueprint that I have shared with so many of my colleagues called ``Energy 2020,'' which we released earlier this year. But I do think that with the legislation the Senator from Delaware has spearheaded, we have identified a way to further our progress in that direction.
Right now, the oil and gas sector is able to benefit from the master limited partnership structure, and it is a good thing because it has helped to raise billions of dollars in private markets for much needed pipeline infrastructure. We are going to need that as we work to keep up with the natural gas boom we are having in this country--how we build new infrastructure, how we take care of existing infrastructure. So we need to have these financing mechanisms. That is all great. But why not expand that out to the renewable sector? Currently, as the Senator from Delaware points out, the law does not allow for that. It is time to fix that. So what we do with this legislation is extend the parity to the renewable sector so that businesses that are pursuing investments in biomass, energy efficiency, and other areas are able to structure as an MLP.
I wish to pause here for a moment because I just came back from a bipartisan, bicameral meeting where we were talking about the energy agenda for this Congress moving forward. Of course, as a nation looking at a $16.8 trillion debt, everything we do we have to figure out how we are going to pay for it. When we think about the energy efficiency initiative--and I note our colleague, Senator Shaheen from New Hampshire, is on the floor with us.
Senator Shaheen and Senator Portman have spearheaded a great piece of legislation focusing on energy efficiency. We think about how we move that forward because that is going to require dollars. Where do we find those dollars? There are not enough rocks with enough money underneath them to advance this. So if we can expand the opportunities for financing to include our renewables and to include energy efficiencies, this is how we move it forward.
Bottom line, when we are talking about the dollars. This is only going to happen if the private markets think the math makes sense. The investments and the structures of the entities that are making them very well might not occur, but, again, that is not our job. We are not here to pick winners and losers. If it is good, if it works, it will happen. But we are helping to provide a financing mechanism that is fair and creates opportunities. Our job, which this bill highlights, is to provide that level playing field. This is about equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. We can't guarantee that outcome, but what we can do is kind of level the playing field in terms of what options are available.
This bill enables the renewable sector to structure a certain way. I am certainly glad to be supporting it with the Senator from Delaware. I think we have some momentum. I was talking to some folks up in New York where I addressed an energy financial forum, and what everybody was interested in was not what is happening on the R&D side; it was so much interest in the master limited partnership and its ability to expand to other areas; how we can take a tool that has worked very well for us in the oil and gas sector and push it out to renewables and efficiency.
So I think the momentum is there, and I applaud Senator Coons for his leadership in that regard.
The Senator from Delaware also mentioned the expanded scope. Again, I think that is an important aspect of this bill. I am excited about where we are right now, and I look forward to working with the Senator from Delaware as we build out our renewable energy future here.
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. I thank the Senator from Delaware for his leadership as well as for the opportunity to speak to this issue on the floor today. As we talk about the momentum, I think we recognize that oftentimes there will be good ideas that are discussed and debated but often don't get that full body support that allows a good thought to materialize into policy. I want to let the Senator from Delaware know how committed I am to advancing this good policy.
The Senator mentioned the reference to financial innovation, and I think, perhaps, in view of what we have seen in past years with a little bit of chaos on Wall Street and in our banks with derivatives, et cetera, that some people might be concerned about this new financial innovation. We are not recreating the wheel. This has been, as the Senator from Delaware points out, a financing mechanism that has been available to a certain sector of the energy industry for a considerable period of time.
And it has benefited them.
This is not financial innovation in that we are building something out of whole cloth and hoping it works. We know it works. What we are trying do with this is contained in the title. This is bringing about parity, allowing for an extension of a good financing mechanism that will benefit our energy sector throughout the country.
Again, I do not mean to repeat myself, but when we talk about an ``all of the above'' energy policy, I think we need to appreciate that there are some things we do from a policy perspective that hinder us from achieving that ``all of the above.'' When we put in regulatory hurdles or when we put in place limitations that would limit our ability to move that ``all of the above,'' then we need to look critically at that, we need to look at how we could address this. So I think the effort, again, to allow for real fairness, equal opportunity, is critical to us.
I want to wrap up my remarks by saying that I think it is important that what we are doing is allowing for this level playing field within the energy sector. So we are not talking about stripping oil and gas pipelines of their eligibility for the MLP status and replacing it with renewables. This is not a swapping-out deal. I would not support that if that were the case. I would also not support it if it extended a false sense of parity by making, let's just say, only wind available for MLP status or only solar. But, as the Senator has noted, this bill includes it all.
We just had a hearing in the Energy Committee this week on hydropower. There is a great bill coming out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I cannot wait until we get it to the floor. Hydropower holds enormous potential for our Nation. When we talk about kind of the backbone of the American energy system, fossil fuels are kind of it right now, but then hydropower is by far the backbone of the renewable energy sector. About 60 percent of our renewable energy comes from hydropower.
So what we are doing is opening this MLP structure to our renewable resources. But it goes beyond. It is kind of like the Ginsu knife: there is more. It includes the marine hydrokinetics, the biorefineries, alternative fuels, biomass, energy efficient buildings, which I have spoken to, storage, solar, wind, and more.
Again, there is no guarantee that we are going to see billions of dollars of private capital that is going to flood immediately into these sectors. We cannot guarantee the outcomes. But we are trying to ensure equal opportunity across an enormous scope of energy sources.
I again thank the Senator for his leadership on this issue, his stick-to-itiveness. I do think that as we move the issues of tax reform forward, as we move more energy matters through the bodies of the Congress, folks will look at this as a sensible and rational way to approach how we build out an energy sector in this country of which we can all be proud. I thank the Senator for his leadership, and I am so pleased to be part of the effort.
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