G.O.P. Leadership Interceding in Energy Talks

[Khephra]

The top Republicans in the House and Senate will intercede in talks about a new energy policy to keep consideration of the legislation from slipping into next year, Congressional aides said on Friday.

Alarmed by tension between Senate and House negotiators, J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the speaker of the House, and Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Senate majority leader, plan to convene a meeting next week with Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico, and Representative Billy Tauzin, Republican of Louisiana, to try settling the issues holding up the bill.

"This bill is too close and has come too far to have last-second hiccups to send it awry until next year," said Eric Ueland, Dr. Frist's deputy chief of staff.

Mr. Ueland said Mr. Hastert and Dr. Frist, like President Bush, wanted the legislation enacted this year.

more...........

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/11/politics/11ENER.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. Failure to adopt an energy plan ...could also present a political problem

From the Article:

"Failure to adopt an energy plan in the aftermath of the August blackout could also present a political problem for Mr. Bush and the Republicans who control Congress."

<SNIP>

(now - THAT'S THE real concern - right ?)

<SNIP>

"This bill is too close and has come too far to have last-second hiccups to send it awry until next year," said Eric Ueland, Dr. Frist's deputy chief of staff.

Mr. Ueland said Mr. Hastert and Dr. Frist, like President Bush, wanted the legislation enacted this year.

Aides to Mr. Domenici, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, caught the leadership's attention on Thursday when they said deepening differences between the House and the Senate concerning important elements of the energy proposal could keep Congress from voting on a final plan before recessing for the year.

Mr. Bush has been calling on the negotiators to finish their work. The president and other Republicans have said they believe enactment of the measure, with its incentives for domestic energy production, could create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

<SNIP>

Feck the environment

Feck mankind

WE (the BFEE) need our POWER

and, well, . . . .OIL

DUH

and

(sigh)

[Dover]

4. "We Need Our POWER".........................indeed they do.

How fitting that their favorite sources of power are from dinosaurs.

[Rose Siding]

2. One way to dispel the illusion of Bush as a "leader"

would be for the Dems to dig their little heels in and hold on tight. Two birds with one stone: Bush fails to lead. We don't get stuck with policy designed to destroy the environment AND the middle class.

[tom_paine]

3. This is an ugly, ugly bill

Billion in Corproate Welfare. Nothing for the enivronment.

Starvation side by side with insane gluttony. The mark of every Third World nation.

[salin]

5. a couple of stories today on a likely postponement of the bill

FLORIDA:

Congress may not take up controversial energy bill until 2004

Saturday, October 11, 2003

By JOEL ESKOVITZ, [e-mail]

The energy bill that most of Florida's delegation has been up in arms about appears to be further away from passage as members of Congress struggle to find language that will make it acceptable to a majority of senators.

A spokesman for the head of the Senate's energy committee said this week she does not expect the final version of the bill to be taken up by Congress until January at the earliest if the House goes into winter recess at the end of this month as expected.

All but one of Florida's 27 members of Congress have sent a letter to congressional leadership urging the removal of a section calling for an inventory of oil and gas resources in the Gulf of Mexico and off the nation's coasts. They believe it would potentially ruin the state's tourism economy by setting the stage for oil drilling and a possible oil spill onto the state's beaches.

More: http://www.naplesnews.com/03/10/florida/e30719a.htm


OHIO:

Energy bill running out of gas amid much wrangling

10/11/03

Tom Diemer
Plain Dealer Bureau

Washington- Hope is fading for swift passage of a wide-ranging energy bill that supporters say will shore up the nation's aging electric power grid and offer billions of dollars in incentives for domestic oil and gas exploration.

Warring regional interests and a standoff between House and Senate negotiators block the way of earlier claims the legislation would pass Congress and reach President Bush's desk before Thanksgiving.

Warring regional interests and a standoff between House and Senate negotiators block the way of earlier claims the legislation would pass Congress and reach President Bush's desk before Thanksgiving.

The bill, which also stalled last year, gained urgency in August after vast areas on the East Coast and Midwest went dark for up to 25 hours as power lines crashed and a blackout cascaded from Ohio and Michigan east to New York state.

more: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1065864622233751.xml

note - the above article lists controversial parts - though is pro-bill due to the blackout (but it has been disputed that anything in the bill would prevent a recurrence). Includes: Anwr, MTBEvsEthanol and a few other items.


ALASKA:

Energy bill faces delay

By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON--In late July this year, Sen. Ted Stevens predicted that a House-Senate committee would produce a national energy bill this fall and do it without lengthy negotiations.
Last week, his thinking had changed.

"It's entirely possible this bill won't go to the floor until next year," he said.

Alaska's congressional delegation wants the bill for what it could bring home--tax credits that encourage construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope and changes in law to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Those very provisions, though, are among the biggest sticking points for the energy bill.

more: http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113~7244~1692139,00.html


CALIFORNIA:

Differences among Republicans stall energy bill progress
By Carl Hulse
NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON - With energy talks in Congress mired, Senate officials warned on Thursday that talks on a national energy plan could go into next year, even as President Bush called for an accord this year.

A spokeswoman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee told reporters that divisions between House and Senate Republicans over rules for the electricity industry, gasoline additives and subsidies for a gas pipeline in Alaska might not be resolved before Congress adjourned for the year.

"We recognize the possibility that this may take us into January," said Marnie Funk, who works for Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Senate panel and the House-Senate conference committee on the bill.

That idea stunned lobbyists, who had expected the measure with dozens of provisions favorable to U.S. power producers to be wrapped up in a few weeks. It also angered House officials, who said lawmakers there were ready to proceed

more: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/6980322.htm


ALSO a related story, not about the delay - but about yet another controversy from

UTAH:

Congressman Bishop Criticized for Support of Energy Bill

Oct. 10, 2003
John Daley Reporting

Citizen advocacy groups in Utah are calling on Congressman Rob Bishop to pull the plug, on a provision he helped get added to the House energy bill. It would open the door, to 30-million pounds of highly concentrated radioactive waste being stored in Utah's West Desert.

Representative Rob Bishop used to work on Utah's Capitol Hill for the company Envirocare. Now his former employer stands to be the prime Utah beneficiary of a change in federal law Bishop has been pushing for back in Washington.

Envirocare stores radioactive waste, until now just of the low-level variety. But there's a high demand as well for the storage of other wastes, which some call more dangerous. In July Utah Congressman Rob Bishop sent a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging it to include in the energy bill language that makes it possible for tailings rich in radium from an Ohio cleanup site to be stored at Envirocare. He says, thanks to tax revenues for the state, the wording change is a "win-win" for Utah.

more: http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=5&sid=52468

[salin]

6. kick - Pay attention - a day ago this was to be postponed... now move

forward? Keep the eye on the ball.