The Senate voted Wednesday to approve an energy bill that contains provisions encouraging land conservation, renewable energy and improved efficiency. It also includes bad ideas that would harm the environment, particularly a provision that would encourage the burning of trees to generate electricity.

Lawmakers in the Senate struck a deal last week to advance the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which was introduced by Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, and Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington. The bill is a modest attempt at bipartisanship in a Congress that has seen very little of it. Both sides of the aisle put aside their most ambitious energy proposals in an effort to achieve small gains. That is not necessarily a bad thing, given how deeply divided the two parties are on energy and environmental policy.

The bill would permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, an immensely valuable open-space program that uses oil and gas royalties to pay for projects that preserve undeveloped landscapes and historic and cultural sites. The program, which has protected millions of acres in its 51-year history, has never been fully funded and was even allowed to expire briefly in 2015. At least now its survival is assured.

The bill also includes measures to improve the electricity grid so it is capable of accommodating more renewable energy sources, like solar and wind. It seeks to improve the cybersecurity of the grid, an important measure given recent attempts by hackers to disrupt vital computer systems; sets new efficiency standards for federal buildings; and in other ways would reduce residential and commercial energy use.