GOVERNMENT & POLICY the energy bill had been set for floor action before the Memorial Day recess but was bumped from the agenda by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) in order to take action on a tax bill and other legislation. "There has been a lot of speculation if a conference could even begin prior to the August recess," says Bill Wicker, spokesman for the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee minority "I think this issue will take more time, not less. It wasJEFF JOHNSON, C&EN WASHINGTON n't easy last year, as we well found out, and I can't think of any reason it may have gotten easier this year." HIS WEEK, THE SENATE is Exbipartisan measure," but he acknowledged The Senate passed an energy bill last pected to begin an intense and that many contentious issues were not relengthy floor debate on provisolved in his committee and have been deyear; the House cleared its version the year sions of a national energy bill. ferred to the floor. before. Both stalled during the election Senate leaders have said and died in conference committee at least three weeks could be needas the term came to an end. ed for debate if some 100 amendThis year, Democrats appear less ments that have been tossed about pleased with House or Senate enby various senators are actually conergy legislation. In the House, Residered. More likely, fewer than 20 publican leaders simply overpowissues will be debated, and timing ered opponents on a 247 to 175 vote will turn on whether a compromise after voting down a host of amendcan be reached among senators and ments from Democrats. the interests they represent. And But in the closely divided Senate, then whatever may finally emerge Republican leadership must deal from the Senate will have to be with minority views or expect to sufjoined with a House-passed measfer a deadlock on the floor. Demoure by a conference committee. crats have laid out a list of amendments they want debated on the There is a sharp split in views on floor that were not addressed by the the direction taken by the Senate committee. The test will be whether (S. 14) and House (H.R. 6) bills. Republicans can build support for Generally, industry likes most protheir views during these debates vervisions of both bills. But environsus how successful Democrats will mental groups have said both bills be in keeping their party in line while are beyond fixing. pulling off a few liberal Republicans The Senate bill's champion, Sen. to support their views. Pete V Domenici (R-N.M.), Energy & Natural Resources Committee W h e t h e r the two parties can chairman, has said he wants the Sen- GAS LINES Overcoming natural gas shortages is reach a consensus on compromise ate to quickly clear the bill, ham- one of many problems Congress would like to language will determine the fate of mer out a conference agreement resolve through national energy legislation. the bill in the nearly evenly split upwith House members (who passed per body their version on April 11), return a new One amendment already introduced In committee, all but one of 11 Democompromise measure to both bodies for but not debated would double the levels crats opposed reporting the bill out to the approval, and get it to President Bush's of ethanol added to gasoline. It enjoys supfull Senate, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman ( D desk before the Aug. 4 recess. port from farm states and some renewable N.M.), ranking Democratic committee energy advocates. The bill would also ban member, warns that the bill lacks the balOver the past few weeks, Domenici has methyl tert-butyl ether as a gasoline addiance to be a "really effective energy policy been meeting with individual senators in tive. A similar boost for ethanol was infor our country" He has said he will vote hopes of resolving conflicts before the Sencluded in the House bill. against it unless it is modified. ate returns from Memorial Day recess. W h e n Domenici introduced the bill on Northeastern and western senators, Meeting Domenici's schedule would be the Senate floor, he called it "very much a however, want "opt out" provisions in the astounding, say Democrats, who note that
ENERGY BILLS BOLT FORWARD Senators are likely to reach for sharp knives as floor debate begins on energy legislation
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In the closely divided Senate, Republican leadership must deal with minority views or expect to suffer a deadlock on the floor. HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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comprehensive energy policy bill (H.R. 6) cleared the House on April 11; the Senate's version (S. 14) is on the Senate floor and is set for debate in the first week of June. If the Senate approves the bill; the next stop is a House-Senate conference committee that will hammer out final provisions based on the two versions. If successful, the bill will return to both bodies for another vote. If the President decides to sign what he eventually gets, the U.S. will have a new energy law for the first time in more than a decade. ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE The House would open the refuge to commercial gas and oil development. The Senate holds no provisions, and leadership fears that its inclusion would kill any chance of passing an energy bill in the Senate. TAX BREAKS AND INCENTIVES The House provides federal "royalty r e l i e f - w o r t h about $12 billion—for oil and gas producers and tax benefits for fossil, nuclear, and other electricity providers. Another $6 billion in avoided taxes would be directed to alternative fuels and conservation. The total is less than the House bill of two years ago, which offered more than $30 billion mostly to traditional energy developers. But this year's bill includes shifts to corporate aid via direct federal spending, rather than tax breaks, making comparison difficult. The committee-passed Senate bill offers $15.7 billion in breaks; a little more than half would go to the oil, gas, and coal industries. The rest is split among alternative energy production and alternative fuel vehicles, conservation, and energy efficiency programs. VEHICLE EFFICIENCY STANDARDS The House calls for a study of automobile efficiency and better enforcement of current standards; the Senate sets new criteria for federal regulators to consider. Neither increases the standard. NUCLEAR POWER The House reauthorizes the Price Anderson Act to underwrite liability insurance for new nuclear power plant construction. The Senate bill would provide loan guarantees of up to 50% of the construction costs for six new nuclear power plants. It directs the Department of Energy to build an advanced nuclear power plant demonstration project in Idaho to generate electricity and hydrogen, and it permanently reauthorizes Price Anderson. GENERAL SCIENCE R&D Both the House and the Senate bills authorize a host of research programs, including nanotechnologies, the President's clean coal and hydrogen initiatives, fusion, nuclear power, and energy efficiency. All are subject to approval through the annual congressional appropriation process. REFORMULATED VEHICLE FUELS The House bill removes the federal mandate that gasoline contain 2% of oxygenates—methyl te/t-butyl ether or ethanol—to reduce air pollution. It does not ban MTBE, as some members had proposed, but would encourage greater ethanol use, up to 5 billion gal by 2015. The bill gives a "safe harbor" from liability suits for oxygenate providers, and this provision angers water system suppliers who are concerned about drinking water contamination that continues to occur from MTBE. MTBE advocates claim, however, that the bill would allow negligence suits. In the Senate, top Democratic and Republican leaders offered an amendment as the bill was briefly taken up on the floor in May to eliminate the oxygenate requirement; to end use of MTBE within four years of enactment; to give a safe harbor for ethanol liability; and to require 5 billion barrels of ethanol to be blended with gasoline by 2012, more than twice as much as used today. ELECTRICITY Both House and Senate bills enter the thorny area of electricity deregulation and include provisions to encourage siting of new transmission lines. Electricity provisions were not part of energy legislation that failed in the last Congress and are likely to prove to be the most difficult part of the energy package, House and Senate leaders in both parties say.
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bill because they are concerned about costs and availability of ethanol in their regions. Senators also worry about "safe harbor" provisions that would relieve MTBE or ethanol makers from liability for groundwater contamination by their products. Another amendment, coming from Bingaman, would add a renewable energy portfolio standard to the Senate bill, requiring utilities to generate 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020; other senators want the number to be 20%. Bingaman and other senators also want nuclear industry subsidies, which were added by Domenici, stripped from the bill. Neither the House nor Senate bill addresses vehicle fuel mile-per-gallon standards, and Senate amendments are expected to call for an increase in efficiency for sport-utility vehicles and light trucks as well as for passenger cars. One of the most complicated sections of the bill holds provisions to encourage electricity deregulation and the siting of new transmission lines. Amendments are likely and will reflect a contradictory array of regional concerns, fears of market manipulation, and confusion over the impact of a soon-to-be-final regulation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that will modify its "standard market design" to unify the nation's wholesale power grids. And several members of the Senate have said they want a discussion of climatechange options, such as a cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide emissions. President Bush strongly opposes this addition, as do Senate Republicans, but the debate may be hard to avoid. The chemical industry supports the bills but is pushing for an amendment in the Senate reflecting its concerns about the dwindling supplies of natural gas. T h e American Chemistry Council wants the legislation to establish a bipartisan panel to examine the gas crisis. How quickly the Senate moves through all this will matter. If the Senate goes slowly because of lengthy debates, a filibuster, or Frist's unwillingness to take up the bill, it will in the end make compromise harder to achieve. If a bill does clear the Senate but is delayed to the fall, House and Senate members as well as the President will begin to focus on next year's contentious elections and take positions based on votes, making issues harder to resolve. An energy bill—dealing with drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, vehicle efficiency standards, energy deregulation, nuclear power, and much more —will not be easy to sell in the heat of national electoral campaigns. • HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
