The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week voted to advance bipartisan legislation designed to boost U.S.-Israeli energy cooperation on topics:

If the bill goes on to pass on the Senate floor, it will encourage continued engagement among the countries’ government agencies, the bill suggests jointly honing regulatory best practices, cyber energy infrastructure, energy efficiency of water technologies, environmental management of deepwater exploration and coastal protection and restoration.

Parallel legislation to the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Enhancement Bill had been passed earlier this month by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) described the Senate vote as “a huge step forward in our work to enhance the partnership between Israel and the US on energy production.”

Analysts and journalists have increasingly taken it as a given that massive off-shore and on-shore energy reserves in Israel have the potential to reconfigure not just global energy markets but geopolitics.

[Photo: ChannelCosmos3 / YouTube ]