Fractured Republicans Hope for Deal to Pass Energy Bill

[Khephra]

Republican leaders in Congress will attempt to jump-start lagging negotiations over an energy bill at a meeting Wednesday, but to succeed they will have to bring an end to strife among members of their own party.

Republicans are united in wanting to send President Bush a comprehensive bill, after last summer's blackout in the Northeast. But they have dug in on a growing list of regional and local issues on which compromise is difficult.

The latest problem involves hints from Alaska's senators that they might not sign a House-Senate conference report unless it includes such provisions as a government-guaranteed price floor on natural gas pumped through a proposed trans-Alaska pipeline.

The Senate energy bill provides a tax credit that has the effect of supporting the wellhead price of the gas at $3.25 per thousand cubic feet. The administration opposes such anti-market mechanisms. But more to the point, so does House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), a key member of the House GOP negotiating team.

more........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17145-2003Oct12.html

[dusty64]

1. The changes they made

in secret behind closed doors insure this shitty plan will NOT pass. At the very least a filibuster in the Senate will kill this corporate welfare plan and when the rethugs bitch about "obstruction" I hope the Democrats give it to them with both barrels explaining to the public WHY this plan is another dirty giveaway to corporations that will harm the People and the Earth.

[Flying_Pig]

2. The Dems need to filibuster this "pig in a poke", until hell freezes..

over, or at least until after the elections. Of course, if they do that, I have no doubt the BFEE would cause some sort of "energy emergency", and then blame it on the Dems. This bill is a stunning example of the level of greed, arrogance, and avarice, the Republicans have stooped to. No level is too low for them, the scum-sucking fascist bastards.

:grr: