BPC's Energy Project Unveils Energy Bill Tracker

Today, BPC’s Energy team unveiled its new online Energy Bill Tracker, an interactive table that allows users to view and sort energy-related bills in Congress. In addition to each bill’s number, title and chamber of origination, the tracker provides sponsor and cosponsor information, along with an indicator of whether or not each bill has received bipartisan support. The most recent bipartisan bills are initially listed at the top, but if desired, the user can re-sort the table based on any of the columns presented.

The Energy Bill Tracker indicates that, as of the time of this writing, 161 bills in the 113th Congress have been marked with the Congressional Research Service (CRS) term “Energy,” which encompasses a broad spectrum of energy-related topics. Sixty-four of these – or about 40 percent – have received bipartisan sponsorship that includes at least one Republican and one Democrat. An example is the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013, also known as Shaheen-Portman, which can be found in both of its iterations near the top of the table. Another recent bill receiving strong bipartisan support – S. 1600, the Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013 – was introduced October 29 by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Out of the bills presented, three have been signed into law: H.R. 527, the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013; H.R. 678, the Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act; and H.R. 254, the Bonneville Unit Clean Hydropower Facilitation Act. Nearly four-fifths of the bills in the Tracker have been referred to various committees but have not received any subsequent action.

Take a look at BPC’s Energy Bill Tracker for more details and the latest updates.