Congress leaders push negotiators for energy bill
Date: 03-Oct-02
Country: USA
Author: Chris Baltimore
House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle scheduled a private meeting with the bill's senior negotiators to try and settle several thorny issues, a legislative aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican who heads the conference committee, has vowed the panel will finalize a bill this week.
The closed-door meeting, also attended by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, was hurriedly scheduled to replace a public meeting of all conference committee members. The full committee will now meet on Wednesday morning.
There were still wide gaps between Democrats and Republicans on drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge, electricity market reforms and a timetable for boosting ethanol production, a spokesman for Bingaman said.
"Staff is charting its way through some pretty tricky waters," the spokesman added.
Republican negotiators said last week they were willing to trim back the acreage for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, an offer flatly rejected by Democrats.
"The House offer on ANWR is unacceptable to the Senate," Bingaman's spokesman repeated yesterday.
Alaska Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski, one of the biggest proponents of ANWR drilling, was also set to attend the Tuesday night meeting, the legislative aide said.
At issue is whether to give big oil companies access to ANWR's potential 16 billion barrels of oil - a volume equal to the amount of crude the United States would import from all foreign suppliers for five years.
Environmentalists oppose drilling in the Alaskan refuge, saying the same amount of oil could be conserved with stricter fuel efficiency standards for sport utility vehicles and trucks.
The Republican-led House last year voted to open the refuge located in northeast Alaska, while the Democratic-controlled Senate decided to keep energy exploration out of the area.
