Senate Republicans Denounce Energy Bill

Robert Hune-Kalter - Talk Radio News Service

Senate Republicans were quick to denounce Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) new energy and oil spill legislation that was announced late Tuesday evening. 

“Democrats are treating the serious subject of clean energy like an unwanted relative,” said Senate Republican Conference Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

Alexander told reporters that Republicans have been prepared to debate clean energy for a year, insisting many of the party’s policies are similar to those proposed by the White House.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she believes that the energy plan put forth by Republicans is much more responsive than the package released by Reid.

“It has been suggested that our Republican plan is a cobbled together, not thought-out process,” she said.  “We put together a package that responded to the situation in the Gulf. We must increase the strict liability limits, structurally reorganize the MMS, [and] we amend the oil spill liability trust fund.”

Republicans are concerned with one part of the Reid bill that aims to end hydraulic fracturing, the method used by the natural gas industry. Later in the day, Reid told reporters that such criticism is invalid, explaining that the U.S. should explore cleaner methods of extracting natural gas. 

Democrats are launching an aggressive move to pass the legislation before adjourning for the August recess.