As the 113th Congress gets into full swing, energy issues receive significant levels of attention as leadership changes continue within the legislative and executive branches. On January 29th, the Senate voted 94-3 to confirm Senator John Kerry (D-MA) to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. This upcoming week, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) will release her energy blueprint, Energy 20/20: A Vision for America’s Energy Future aimed at achieving greater energy independence through various domestic and international energy production policies. Additionally, Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) said that he will soon reintroduce legislation to provide wind project developers a 30 percent investment tax credit to accelerate electricity production from offshore wind turbines, mirroring the Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (S. 1397).

For additional timely information on state and federal administrative and legislative activities, please see ML Strategies’ weekly Energy and Environmental Update.