House Democrats eye ‘proactive’ energy affordability plan

House Democrats are looking to have a “proactive” legislative response to address energy affordability, rather than simply blaming Trump administration policies.

That’s what one of the leaders of a new House Democratic working group focused on solutions to high gasoline and utility prices told POLITICO in an interview on Tuesday.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced Monday the creation of five working groups to develop different components of affordability legislation that will represent the first bill of a House Democratic majority should they win back control of the chamber in the midterms.

“President Trump promised he was going to cut the electric bills in half, he promised that gasoline was going to be down [to] $2 or less, and clearly that hasn't happened. But it's not enough just to rail against how things are. It's also having a proactive, positive, affirmative view of how things need to be,” said Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), who is leading the gas and utilities working group with Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.).

Levin said his working group will convene a listening session with House Democrats on Thursday morning, representing the first step in the policy development stage that will reflect a consensus view of the conference. Levin didn’t rule out future listening sessions with members but noted the limited time the House will be in session before the August recess.

He and Budzinski will then convene outside input during July, before looking to release a product. While he didn’t want to get ahead of those sessions, Levin and fellow clean energy hawk Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) introduced a bill in March — dubbed the "Energy Bills Relief Act" — backed by more than half of all Democrats in the House that would reverse the Republicans' rollback of solar and wind tax credits and incentivize permitting of new renewable projects.