US Senate panel to finish energy bill this week
Date: 30-Apr-03
Country: USA
Author: Tom Doggett
The energy legislation is expected to be considered by the full Senate in May, but differences with the House bill would have to be hammered out before President George W. Bush could sign a bill into law.
The Senate Energy Committee will debate yesterday the transportation fuels provision of its bill; panel members are expected to consider a proposal to double the production of ethanol-blended gasoline over the next decade.
Republican Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri and his Democratic colleagues, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota and Tim Johnson of South Dakota, will offer an amendment to increase the use of corn-based ethanol to 5 billion gallons by 2012.
The proposal was recently approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The House-passed energy bill calls for ethanol production to double to 5 billion gallons and has a longer target date of 2015.
About 70 U.S. ethanol facilities produce more than 2.75 billion gallons a year. Ten facilities are under construction and dozens more are in the planning stages.
Lawmakers want to boost ethanol production to meet the goal of diversifying U.S. fuel supply sources.
The Senate committee will also vote Tuesday on provisions in the legislation that promote energy production on Indian lands and general energy research and development.
On Wednesday, the committee tackles language to improve the U.S. electricity grid.
The Senate panel's chairman, Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico, wants to slow down a plan from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to create a standard design for regional electricity markets.
Southern and western states are worried the FERC plan will raise power costs in their regions.
Under Domenici's revised draft electricity bill, released last week, FERC would be prohibited from finalizing its rules until 120 days after the energy legislation is signed into law.
Domenici initially sought to delay the FERC plan until 2005.
Another major difference in the approaches of the two bodies is that the House bill allows oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while the Senate legislation denies energy firms access to the refuge.
