Senate Republicans to put energy bill tax provisions in new bill

Senate Republicans to put energy bill tax provisions in new bill

Washington (Platts)--5Apr2004


Republicans in the US Senate will strip a $15-bil energy tax incentive package
from the stalled comprehensive energy bill and attach it to another bill in
the latest move to get the energy legislation through the Senate, a
spokeswoman for Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete
Domenici (Republican-New Mexico) said Monday. That would eliminate any
opposition to the cost of the energy bill, S. 2095, by senators, but keep the
"main drivers" of the bill intact -- provisions to mandate grid reliability,
promote ethanol as a fuel additive, and encourage the development of
low-emission coal and a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48
states, according to the Domenici aide. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
(Republican-Tennessee) is preparing to bring a revised Foreign Sales
Corporation bill with the $15-bil energy tax plan included to the floor this
week, congressional aides said. Frist has called for a cloture vote on the FSC
bill for Wednesday in an attempt to limit debate on the measure.

How the legislation would be addressed in the House of Representatives remains
unknown. The House passed a comprehensive bill, HR 6, that stemmed from a
House-Senate conference, but the bill stalled in the Senate over its cost
--$31-bil over 10 years and a liability waiver for producers of MTBE.
Domenici, who in the past has resisted breaking up the energy bill, earlier
this year offered S. 2095, which eliminated the MTBE waiver and halved the
cost of the House-passed bill. But he has yet to get the support necessary to
get the measure through the Senate.

This story was first published in Platts real-time news and market reporting
service Platts Global Alert
(http://www.platts.com/Oil/Real-Time%20Information/Global%20Alert/ ).