Washington (Platts)--1Aug2007

US House Republicans Wednesday said they don't believe they will have
enough votes to block energy legislation Democratic leaders hope to bring to
the floor on Friday.

     In a briefing with reporters, Republican Whip Roy Blount of Missouri said
Republicans will be unlikely to block the legislation unless they can convince
a significant number of conservative Democrats to join them.

     There are at least 44 conservative House Democrats who are members of the
so-called Blue Dog Coalition, but Blunt spokesman Chris Tucker said
"no one knows" how many of these Democrats will be willing to oppose House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Tucker said Republican
leadership can count on all but 15 Republicans in the House to oppose the
bill.

     Blunt said the Democrats will have reconfigured their proposals and
placed them in two packages. One package includes new taxes on oil and gas
production. The other bill focuses on issues such as energy conservation.

     But none of the bills, he said, would encourage increase US oil and gas
production and would in fact declare off limits some areas now open to
development. 

		--Rodney White, rodney_white@platts.com