Senate Approves Energy Bill, Still Faces Tussle With House

May 11 - Palm Beach Post -

The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would set a new energy policy for the United States, but without the arctic oil drilling sought by President Bush or the automobile fuel conservation measures promoted by environmentalists.

The bill, passed 88-11, consists mostly of $14 billion in tax incentives divided between production and conservation programs. Florida's two Democratic senators split on the bill, with Bill Nelson voting for it and Bob Graham against it.

It now goes to a conference with the House that is likely to be contentious. Both parties are positioning themselves in this election year to claim credit for setting the country on a course toward less dependence on foreign energy sources.

The political debate began almost immediately.

"Despite the do-nothing Daschlecrats, Republicans continue to deliver on the issues of economic and national security," House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said in a written statement. DeLay shepherded legislation incorporating the Bush energy plan through the House last August. His statement blamed Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., for the delay in getting an energy bill through the Senate.

Daschle, in his remarks closing the Senate energy debate, insisted that the process, while protracted, produced "a far more responsible, progressive, consumer-friendly energy policy than the one advanced by the administration, or passed by the House."

The Senate intermittently debated the energy bill over the past six weeks. Most of the delays in the debate stemmed from Republican efforts to round up enough support for the cornerstone of Bush's energy bill, a proposal to allow oil and gas exploration in the protected Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Their efforts ultimately failed despite the argument from the White House that the refuge would produce enough oil to replace the amount of Iraqi oil the United States buys on the open market.

While the Republicans failed on that front, they succeeded - with the help of Democrats from auto-producing states - in killing a proposal brought to Democrats by environmentalists to mandate future increases in automobile fuel efficiency, known as CAFE standards.

Stripped of ANWR and CAFE, the bill that finally passed the Senate is notable mostly for its $14 billion in tax incentives to encourage energy production from renewable resources and from "clean coal" facilities as well as the use of alternative fuels and alternative fuel vehicles,

The Senate bill also includes incentives to companies to build a pipeline capable of delivering natural gas reserves from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay to major U.S. markets, a Democratic proposal that countered Bush's recruitment of organized labor leaders with the promise of thousands of new jobs in exploring for oil and gas in ANWR.

The ANWR proposal is likely to be a sticking point in the conference between the House and Senate. The House bill includes the proposal. It also includes much broader tax incentives, about $33 billion worth, with more of the tax breaks going to fossil fuel energy producers.

Another source of contention is the Senate bill's requirement that 10 percent of the electricity produced by utilities come from such renewable sources as wind and solar by 2019, a provision opposed by many House Republicans.

In addition, the Senate bill would triple ethanol use in gasoline and ban the gas additive MTBE, elements the House leadership avoided as too divisive.

- scotts@coxnews.com