|
Federal energy bill items next in line Senate could vote this week on Alaska gas incentives added to tax bill Larry Persily Petroleum News Government Affairs Editor
This could be the week the U.S. Senate takes up tax incentives for an Alaska natural gas pipeline project.
Or maybe not.
After coming back to work from its Easter break, the Senate took up asbestos trust fund legislation and was scheduled to consider a victims’ rights bill before moving to the next item on its agenda — a major international tax bill amended to carry at least $13 billion in domestic energy tax incentives.
Senators could vote on the bill this week or, if not, anytime before they leave for their Memorial Day holiday, said Chuck Kleeschulte, spokesman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. The schedule could depend on how Senate leaders decide to deal with 80-plus amendments proposed for the bill, he said.
“They’re in the process of trying to winnow down the number of amendments,” said John Katz, head of the state of Alaska’s office in Washington, D.C. “Nobody wants to sit around while all that occurs,” he said of the floor time that 80 amendments — and their debate — would consume.
After Memorial Day, time will be short in Congress.
Lawmakers will be back for parts of June and July, then break again for political party conventions before returning to finish up work before shutting down for the November elections. And if the tax bill passes the Senate, it would still need to make it through the House and then a House-Senate conference committee to resolve differences between the two chambers.
According to the congressional calendar, lawmakers had just 44 work days left in the session as of April 20, Katz said. Key gas line provisions salvaged Among the oil and gas incentives salvaged from the stalled comprehensive federal energy bill and added to the tax legislation are two key provisions intended to encourage construction of a pipeline to move Alaska North Slope gas to market.
“(Congressional) leadership clearly contemplates segmenting the energy bill,” and tacking key provisions to other bills with better odds of passage, Katz said.
The energy bill has been stalled in the Senate since late November over several disputes, including its bulging multibillion-dollar cost and a controversial product liability waiver for manufacturers of a gasoline additive.
In picking up the energy bill’s tax provisions and moving them into the corporate tax bill, Senate Republican leaders have given hope to incentives for an Alaska North Slope natural gas pipeline: tax incentives for construction of the North Slope gas treatment plant, and accelerated depreciation for the pipeline. A third provision added to the tax bill — a price floor for North Slope gas — is not expected to survive in the final legislation.
That still leaves two other gas line provisions from the energy bill that will need a new legislative home, Katz said. Those are the federal loan guarantee for the project and enabling legislation for fast-track permitting and judicial review.
| 