LANSING – There is a possibility the full Senate may begin to act on legislation dealing with the renewable energy portfolio standards this week, Senate GOP sources said, but action on the main measure may wait as legislators try to develop a compromise proposal on the bill that critics have charged would allow the state’s largest utilities to monopolize electricity generation, but that supporters argue would help promote job growth in the state.
Senate Republicans were locked into a members-only caucus for more than three hours on Tuesday as they discussed the package that was reported from the Energy Policy and Energy Technology Committee last week.
Several individuals characterized the discussion as intense but not heated as supporters and opponents of the three main bills in the package (HB 5524 , HB 5548 and HB 5549 ) went through their concerns and the broad issues in the bills.
“I’ve talked more about energy in the last three weeks than I have in my entire life,” one person said. And a second, said several Senate Republican colleagues independently to one another, said that they thought the caucus was one of the best that had been held since the 94th Legislature began.
But no caucus consensus on the package emerged, the sources said. And since Democrats and possibly enough Republicans could put together the votes to pass the bills as they came from committee, members are going to have come up with some compromises that would draw enough votes, one source said.
At least one supporter of SB 5524 will be absent for a while (Sen. Tony Stamas (R-Midland) see separate item) which may hold off action on the main bill until at least next week.
But following a Thursday caucus, the Senate may act on the two RPS bills, HB 5548 and HB 5549, sources said. At the very least, there may be amendments made to the bills even if they do not pass the chamber at that time, sources said.
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