Washington (Platts)--6Sep2007

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday said a House-Senate
conference committee won't begin working out differences between the two
chambers' energy bills until later in the year after Congress has addressed
issues related to the war in Iraq and other legislation, including spending
bills.

     "There are a multitude of things we need to do," Reid, a Nevada Democrat,
told reporters at a Washington news conference. "I'm doing my best to work out
times on all these things." Reid said that in addition to dealing with the
expected September 15 White House report on the status of the military surge
in Iraq, the Senate must take up appropriations bills as well as measures
dealing with education, agriculture, children's healthcare and transportation
infrastructure.

     Reid said he met on Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California
Democrat, and on Wednesday with Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Chairman Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, to discuss the energy bill. 

     "We're in very preliminary conversations at the staff level," Bingaman
spokesman Bill Wicker said Thursday, adding to that staff is working under the
assumption that a conference will begin in "early fall" and that "it's going
to be a while before anything official happens."

     The House in early August passed a wide-ranging energy bill (H.R. 3221)
that would, among other things, establish energy efficiency targets and
standards for everything from light bulbs to buildings and require
investor-owned electric utilities to obtain 15% of their power supply from
renewable energy by 2020. A related House measure (H.R. 2776) would strip more
than $15 billion in tax breaks from oil and natural gas producers over the
next 10 years and direct the money to efficiency and renewable energy
incentives.

     In June, the Senate passed comprehensive energy legislation that would
cut US oil consumption by mandating the largest increase in fuel economy
standards for cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles in more than 20 years.
The measure (H.R. 6) also would require that 36 billion gallons of ethanol and
other renewable biofuels be blended into gasoline and home heating fuels over
the next 15 years. 

     The Senate failed to include any tax provisions or establish a renewable
energy standard for utilities.

		--Alexander Duncan, alexander_duncan@platts.com