Democratic leaders in the US Congress have decided to work together to
finalize an energy bill, potentially bypassing Republicans.

The House and the Senate have already passed their own energy bills. But
"it appears that the Senate will not be able to move to a formal conference
process [to reconcile differences in the two bills] as the Speaker prefers,"
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill, said in a statement issued late Wednesday.

"There is nothing I'd like better than to have a conference -- a full and
open discussion of the issue," Pelosi told press conference Thursday. "With or
without a conference, we will proceed."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who had hoped to offer a motion late
last week to go to conference with the House, scrapped the idea after he was
unable to get sufficient Republican support, Reid spokesman Stephen Krupin
said.

Senator Pete Domenici, ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee,
said in a Thursday statement that House Democrats "have prevented the Senate
from even appointing conferees" by not sending over a bill that could be
conferenced.

Domenici criticized the House Democratic leadership for choosing to "to
forgo the normal process for passing legislation by sending the Senate an
entirely new bill, instead of taking up Senate-passed legislation," amending
it, and then sending it back to the Senate.

"I am extremely disappointed to hear that Speaker Pelosi has decided
against holding a conference committee to finalize an energy bill and will
instead attempt to write a new energy bill through a closed-door process,"
Domenici said.

The two measures each contain a number of controversial provisions,
including Senate language that would raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy
standard to cars and light trucks to 35 miles per gallon by 2020. A provision
in the House bill that would require electric utilities to obtain 15% of their
power from renewable resources by 2020 has drawn opposition from the Bush
administration and Republican members of Congress. The House bill also would
reduce tax breaks for gas and oil producers and limit their access to federal
lands.

--Gerry Karey, gerry_karey@platts.com
--Jean Chemnick, jean_chemnick@platts.com