Even as the President now has Washington guessing about what will happen next to on the COVID/omnibus front, we continue to read through the package.
The joint COVID/appropriations legislation contains a whole host of bills that are not related to COVID or appropriations, which is not that unusual for a “Christmas tree” bill. The inclusion of the Energy Act of 2020 (Div. Z) is a case in point.
The energy legislation contains a slew of energy innovation and research-related provisions, including the reauthorization of the ARPA-E program. In addition, it addresses a host of energy research areas, such as fusion, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon management/removal, electric grid security, and mineral security. A section-by-section summary of that portion of the legislative package, compiled by the Senate Energy Committee, is available here.
We will continue to review the bill.