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Aug. 1, 2003 -- A Senate committee has succeeded in getting past its deadlock over a comprehensive energy bill by making use of some provisions already passed by the Democrats last year.
H.R. 6, which was the text of last year's Senate-passed energy bill, will be used as the basis for negotiations with the House of Representatives, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Pete V. Domenici said. Provisions from his committee's newer version, S. 14, could be integrated into the bill during negotiations on the bill with the House of Representatives this fall.
Domenici said he had plans to write into the conference report the production, diversity and research provisions contained in S. 14, the Energy Policy Act of 2003, which was crafted by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee under Domenici's leadership.
"This deal is not how I envisioned getting an energy bill to conference," Domenici said. "But if it gets us closer to our goal, I consider it a win. I consider it a win for a nation in desperate need of a bold and balanced energy policy that will create jobs, protect our economy and make us less dependent on foreign energy.
Democratic ranking committee member Sen. Jeff Bingaman said the move was an acknowledgment of the strong work done on last year's bill.
"I'm pleased that the Senate recognized the value of the long, hard work that members put into an energy bill in the last Congress, the balance we successfully stuck between energy production and energy efficiency, and our recognition of the linkage between energy policy and environmental policy, including climate change.
"The final bill will look more like what I produced in committee this spring than it will the bill we are passing tonight," Domenici said. "Tonight's bill is just a vehicle to get us to conference."
The House and Senate versions are substantially different, with the Senate version calling for more renewable energy, a new office of climate change, and a registry of corporate greenhouse gas emissions. The House version encourages oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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