US energy bill dead until next Congress
Date: 15-Nov-02
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The senators, deadlocked for months in talks with House counterparts, agreed there was not enough time left to wrap up the bill in the limited number of days left in the current congressional session. The bill will die formally when Congress adjourns.
"They reached a consensus that there ain't enough time left with the House set to adjourn," said Bill Wicker, spokesman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico Democrat. "It's just not possible."
The delay was a big disappointment to farmers, who hoped for a new congressional mandate to more than double the market for corn-based ethanol.
While House and Senate negotiators were willing to agree on a 5 billion-gallon mandate for ethanol, they disagreed on when. The Senate proposed that it take effect in 2012, the House in 2014.
House and Senate lawmakers were stymied for months over a comprehensive energy bill. With adjournment only days away, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin proposed an "energy lite" bill dealing only with pipeline safety and nuclear power plant insurance.
Senate negotiators did not formally reject the offer sent by House Republicans, which contained the pared-back bill, Wicker said.
Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who announced Wednesday he would chair the Senate Energy Committee in the next Congress, would help shepherd through a new energy bill when lawmakers return in January.
While Republicans will control the new Congress, they will still have a tough time passing energy legislation that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a key part of the Bush administration's national energy plan.
Republicans are still short of the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to cut off debate and vote on controversial bills like giving energy firms access to the refuge.
Democrats John Kerry of Massachusetts and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut - both possible presidential candidates in the 2004 election - have promised to filibuster legislation that would open the Arctic refuge to oil exploration.
Democrats and environmentalists argue there is not enough oil in the refuge to justify harming the wildlife that lives there and it could take eight years for the refuge's oil to reach the market.
President George W. Bush said he wants to tap the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of oil to help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign crude.
The refuge, which is home to polar bears, caribou and other wildlife, sprawls across 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) of Alaska's northeast corner.
