The first overhaul of U.S. energy policy in more than a decade stalled in a Senate filibuster months ago. An Energy Committee spokeswoman said the bill was still alive despite the latest failure to break the filibuster.
On votes that followed party lines, the Senate blocked a Democrat-led proposal to attach the ethanol mandate to an Internet tax bill and a Republican alternative to paste a slimmed-down energy bill to the Internet bill. The ethanol language was one of the most popular parts of the energy bill.
"Energy will be coming up again this spring but in a more appropriate forum," said Energy Committee spokeswoman Marnie Funk. She declared the votes were "a double victory" that prevented a splintering of the energy bill and avoided the complication of merging energy policy with Internet taxes.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, author of the ethanol amendment, said Republicans abandoned ethanol. Last year, 68 senators voted for the requirement for use of 5 billion gallons of ethanol a year in 2012, double current usage.
Ethanol is popular in rural America, including South Dakota where Daschle is running for re-election. It is seen as a way to boost farm income and reduce U.S. reliance on oil imports.
With 60 votes needed for victory, senators refused, 41-58, to prevent a filibuster of the ethanol plan. On a 55-43 vote, they failed to block a filibuster on the energy bill. There are 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and one independent in the Senate.
"Both votes today had a lot more to do with politics than with policy," said an ethanol lobbyist. He said the votes showed strong support for ethanol and the energy bill if the issue was debated in a "serious" setting.
When the Senate began work on Thursday, Majority Leader Bill Frist said he supported larger ethanol use but as part of an energy bill that also modernizes the nation's electric grid, backs an Alaskan natural gas pipeline and promotes renewable energy sources.
"We should not break apart the energy bill and attempt to pass it piecemeal," said Frist, Tennessee Republican. "We in the United States need a comprehensive energy policy."
The House of Representatives has passed energy legislation that differs from what the Senate has proposed.
House Republican leaders demand the energy bill include protection against product-defect lawsuits for makers of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a fuel additive and rival to ethanol, which is distilled from corn. Opposition to the MTBE language helped mire the energy bill in the Senate.
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