14 senators picked to negotiate energy bill

WASHINGTON (AFX) -- July 1

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Friday selected 14 senators to participate in upcoming negotiations to work out a compromise on a broad energy bill with the House.

Referred to as conferees, the eight Republican and six Democratic senators were selected by seniority from those committees with jurisdiction over the energy legislation.

The House has not announced who it plans to appoint or a start date for discussions. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, is expected to chair the negotiations.

The House passed an $8 billion energy bill in April, while the Senate approved passage of a $16 billion energy bill on Monday. The negotiators will try to hammer out differences between the two bills.

From the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Senate leadership selected Sens. Pete Domenici R-N.M., Larry Craig, R-Idaho, Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Richard Burr, R-N.C., Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Tim Johnson, R-S.D.

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., from the Senate Finance Committee were also appointed conferees.

President Bush made comprehensive energy legislation a top priority in his first term and continues to call on Congress to send him a bill by August.

But despite efforts to advance legislation over the past four years, the bill has run aground numerous times.

In the last Congress, negotiations over the energy bill broke down when House negotiators demanded the bill contain a provision protecting large refineries that produce the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, from lawsuits that claim the product is defective because it has contaminated underground water supplies throughout the country. The Senate, however, refused to endorse a waiver.

The House energy bill again contains the MTBE waiver provision but the Senate bill does not address the issue, meaning a compromise will need to be worked out in conference.

This story was supplied by MarketWatch. For further information see www.marketwatch.com .

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