PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Feb 14, 2013
Sustainable Energy Act - Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to repeal the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to reduce or eliminate royalty payments for oil and natural gas leases in the Outer Continental Shelf.
Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to increase minimum royalty payments for coal, oil, and natural gas leases.
Repeals the program for ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resource exploration and production.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
Amends the Oil Pollution Act to eliminate the limitation on liability for offshore facilities and pipeline operators for oil spills.
Rescinds all unobligated balances made available to the World Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Export-Import Bank, the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the Department of Energy (DOE), and other international financing entities to carry out any project that supports coal, oil, or natural gas.
Terminates the Office of Fossil Energy Research and Development in DOE and the authority to carry out any of its programs.
Amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to eliminate from the categories of projects eligible for loan guarantees for innovative technologies: (1) projects involving advanced fossil energy technology, and (2) and crude oil refineries.
Prohibits the Secretary of Agriculture from making loans under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to carry out projects that will use coal, oil, or natural gas.
Prohibits the use of Department of Transportation (DOT) funds to award any grant or other direct assistance to any rail or port project that transports coal, oil, or natural gas.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) limit or repeal provisions allowing tax incentives for investment in fossil fuels; (2) extend, through 2020, tax incentives for the production of electricity from renewable resources and the energy tax credit for alternative energy sources; and (3) extend, for a five-year period, allocations of the advanced energy project tax credit.
Increases the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund financing rate.
Imposes a 13% tax on the removal price of any taxable crude oil or natural gas from the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.
Designates the Powder River Basin in southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming as a coal producing region. Eliminates accelerated depreciation for property that is receiving a subsidy for fossil fuel production.
People & committees
Sen. Sanders, Bernard [I-VT] · I–VT
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Aug 12, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.329 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.329 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.329 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.329 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.