Daschle says has votes to pass energy bill

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle on Tuesday said there are enough votes in the chamber to pass a slimmed-down $16 billion energy bill, which Republicans could set for a vote later this month.

Senate Republicans have cut the price tag of a massive $31 billion energy bill in half and dropped controversial language to protect makers of the polluting fuel additive MTBE from lawsuits to win broader support for measure.

The bill also would provide billions in tax incentives to boost oil and natural gas drilling, and back construction of a pipeline to ship natural gas from Alaska to the U.S. Midwest.

The bill has been bogged down in the Senate since December, when Republicans fell two votes short to end debate on it.

However, Daschle said he has convinced enough Democrats to block a filibuster of the measure, even though some Democrats still hope to amend the legislation.

Senate rules require the support of 60 of the chamber's 100 members to limit debate on a bill and then proceed to a final vote.

"I believe ... that we have more than 60 votes, should there be any effort to delay final passage," Daschle told reporters. He said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist plans to hold a vote on the bill in late March, when the Senate returns from its week-long spring recess.

The revised bill faces opposition in the Republican-led House of Representatives. House leaders have criticized the new Senate bill because it eliminated a provision to protect oil companies from liability lawsuits for methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, a water-polluting gasoline additive.

House Republicans from oil refining states, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, have pledged to oppose the Senate bill in its current form.

In the Senate, the bill faces a fight from some Democrats and Republican budget hawks who object to generous subsidies given to companies to boost production of oil and natural gas.

"The slimmed-down version is still full of a lot of fat in the wrong places for the fossil fuel industry," said Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington.

"It's the same old package of pork -- it's rancid pork," said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who opposes the bill on budget-busting grounds.

Cantwell said the Senate should pass her stand-alone bill to boost electric grid reliability standards. Similar provisions meant to prevent a repeat of last August's massive Northeast blackout are included in the energy bill.

However, Republicans are "holding reliability standards hostage" to win an agreement on the total package, she said.

The energy bill also would double the use of corn-distilled ethanol in gasoline to 5 billion gallons a year, making it more tough for farm-state Democrats like Daschle to oppose it.