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Energy bill on the wait list Senate vote not expected until late February; backers still short Larry Persily Petroleum News Government Affairs Editor
Energy bill proponents and opponents are starting the new year the same way they ended last year — counting votes and waiting. Supporters, however, have one less senator in their column with the loss of Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who announced he will join the effort to filibuster the bill.
The measure, which passed the House in November, is stuck in the Senate, which returned to work Jan. 20 after its holiday vacation. But first the Senate has to vote on the omnibus spending bill needed by federal agencies already four months into the fiscal year without a final budget.
The energy bill is not scheduled to come up for a vote until the end of February, said an aide to Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
Until then, lawmakers and lobbyists on both sides of the bill are working to count to 60 — the number of senators needed to shut off debate on the measure and move the bill toward final passage. Backers had 58 votes when the Senate tried in November to pass the measure, which includes substantial tax incentives and expedited permit review provisions for an Alaska natural gas pipeline project. Senator blames high cost and nuclear waste issue Ensign, who was among the 58 willing to close down debate, announced Jan. 16 the bill’s $23-plus billion price tag of tax credits and other financial hits on the federal treasury is among the reasons for his decision to switch sides.
The senator also is critical of tax breaks for the nuclear power industry, “especially since they’re targeting our state for disposal of nuclear waste,” said his aide, Jack Finn. Nevada state officials are fighting to overturn a 2002 decision by President George Bush to store spent nuclear power plant fuel at a site near Las Vegas.
“The Ensign decision, while disappointing, isn’t going to cost us the energy bill,” Domenici spokeswoman Marnie Funk told the Wall Street Journal.
In addition to counting votes, the bill’s supporters need to worry about the calendar, too, said Chuck Kleeschulte, spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Sooner is better than later, Kleeschulte said, explaining that the bill’s chances for passage diminish as it gets closer to the partisan politics of the presidential campaign season.
The simplest solution, he said, would be an early vote on the bill, without any changes. “It’s a question of finding the votes,” with supporters needing to find at least three more senators willing to vote to stop debate.
After reaching the 60-vote majority to block a filibuster, the bill would require just a simple 51-vote majority for final passage. Liability waiver the biggest problem Though Alaskans look to the bill for its gas pipeline incentives and funding for other energy projects, the big issue holding up passage is the provision releasing manufacturers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, known as MTBE, from any pollution liability. House leadership is demanding the liability waiver remain in the bill, but several senators have said they would be willing to change their votes and support the bill if the waiver is dropped.
“The impasse on MTBE has not been resolved,” said John Katz, director of the state of Alaska’s office in Washington, D.C. “That is the largest single stumbling block to getting an energy bill.”
And while some spectators have started talking about splitting the bill into pieces to pass the agreeable items and setting aside the controversial provisions, Katz doesn’t see that happening. “The leadership doesn’t seem ready to release any of the hostages, yet.”
Domenici is of the same thought. “The one option I absolutely will not consider is breaking this bill up,” he said in a prepared statement Jan. 20.
Definitive statements are not the exclusive province of senators in this debate. House Energy and Commerce Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, R-La., and House Resources Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., addressed a letter earlier this month to the House speaker, blaming the Senate for the stalemate: “We would urge you to use your offices to educate obstructionist senators about the serious energy difficulties their constituents face, now and into the future.”
Louisiana is home to many of the MTBE producers, and Tauzin pushed hard to win the liability waiver in the bill. Cold winter, high gas prices could help This winter’s extreme cold in the Northeast and rising energy prices might help in the search for winning votes in the Senate. “We keep hoping and expecting that high gas prices will have some impact on the process,” Katz said.
It’s unlikely the process will result in another shot for Alaska to convince lawmakers to reopen the bill and add a provision allowing oil and gas exploration in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Katz said. “It just doesn’t seem to be a dynamic at the moment in the energy bill debate.”
The state has been pushing for years to open ANWR to drilling, and could turn its efforts to including the ANWR provision in the federal budget reconciliation bill expected for a vote this spring.
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