The Senate has revived a wide-ranging bill to promote various forms of energy, from renewables to natural gas, hydropower and geothermal energy. The bill would speed federal approval of projects exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe and Asia. The Senate is expected to pass the legislation sometime this week.
The bipartisan bill is widely popular, but was delayed in early February because of a dispute over sending hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid to Flint, Michigan, to fix and replace the city's lead-contaminated water pipes.
Michigan's Democratic senators dropped the Flint provision last week after a months-long standoff with Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver urged the public to call out the senator by giving out his Capitol Hill phone number.
“Sen. Lee of Utah has been holding up some money for us. What I’d like people to do is start calling Sen. Lee and press upon him the importance of us having clean water,” Weaver said. “All of the people of Flint deserve clean, quality, affordable water. And I’d like to give you his phone number. It’s area code (202)224-5444, and tell Sen. Lee to get up off of it.”
Weaver’s message was not simply aimed at Michigan residents. She said that Utahns should wonder if such a crisis in their state would merit a similar response.
“You know, if you’re in Utah, one of the things you need to be worried about is if it happened there,” she said. “Would he have your back? So, let’s start giving him a call as well because we need to continue to put the pressure on and we need to continue to hold people accountable.”
Senator Lee said Congress should find another way to get the Flint aid package.
