In some ways, 2020 likely marks a holding pattern for climate and energy policy ahead of the November election. But energy analysts think Congress just might be able to cobble a package of energy bills together. And even if national environmental policy remains rather stagnant, the electric vehicle industry — and domestic gas production — are poised to have a strong year.

Comprehensive energy package?

In 2020, it’s possible an energy package of bipartisan proposals will come together between the House and Senate, especially given the productivity of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the bipartisan work that leaders on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee would like to get enacted, said Katherine Hamilton, chair of 38 North Solutions LLC, a clean energy and innovation policy consultancy.

However, even if lawmakers put one forward, it’s uncertain whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would hold a vote on it in the chamber, said Brandon Hurlbut, a co-founder of advisory firm Boundary Stone Partners who was chief of staff to former Energy Secretary Steven Chu. Hurlbut sees a chance for such a package of smaller energy and climate bills, but Ed Crooks, vice chair of the Americas at Wood Mackenzie Ltd., agreed it is unclear what kind of climate bill would even have a chance of passage in the Senate.

Leah Stokes, an assistant professor in climate and energy politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said it is possible McConnell would choose to move a set of energy bills. A package out of the Republican-majority Senate energy panel “is not going to be some radical large-scale policy. It’s going to be incremental, likely research and development-focused.”

Congress is currently in the throes of negotiating clean energy tax credits, not all of which may make it in to a funding deal by the end of the year. While energy storage and efficiency credits are popular and could be included in a vehicle through 2019, others, such as the solar investment tax credit, may have a shot at extension in the lame duck of 2020, Hamilton said.

But analysts were in full agreement: No carbon tax is likely forthcoming in 2020. Getting that through Congress is “an uphill battle,” Crooks said.