Reid wants pre-recess energy legislation

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that he wants to bring energy legislation to the floor before the Memorial Day recess.

He said in a press briefing that Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) is planning to shepherd several measures through the Energy panel in the coming weeks.

“Chairman Bingaman thinks that prior to the Memorial Day recess he can get some energy pieces of legislation out of his committee that we can work on here on the floor,” Reid told reporters in the Capitol.

Reid didn’t provide specifics on what measures might come to the floor.

Bingaman told reporters earlier in the day that he’d like to clear several bills in the next few weeks. They include bills to create a “Clean Energy Deployment Administration” that would expand financing options for green energy projects; offshore drilling safety legislation that responds to the BP oil spill; and legislation to spur development of small modular nuclear reactors.

Reid said he’s unlikely to try and move a single large package. “I don’t think we can jam it all together. But I think we can take them one at a time,” Reid said.

“Anything he [Bingaman] gets out of his committee, with rare exceptions, is going to be bipartisan in nature, so I look forward to doing something energy-related. We are way behind where we should be on energy legislation,” Reid said.

Democrats are also planning more votes to try and repeal oil-industry tax breaks — an issue that’s not before Bingaman’s panel. Reid said he’s planning an announcement on the issue Wednesday, but a vote is not expected this week.

Votes to repeal industry tax breaks in June of 2010 and February of this year fell far short of the needed support amid opposition from Republicans and some centrist Democrats.