By OGJ editors
WASHINGTON, DC, Nov. 26 -- US House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) late Tuesday said he was still confident that comprehensive energy legislation could pass the US Senate in January.
Senate Republican leaders pulled the bill Nov. 24 when they were two votes short of cutting off debate. Opponents of the measure threatened to talk the bill to death unless House Republicans revised the legislation.
A House plan to offer product liability protection for the fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether helped derail support. The measure's projected $31 billion cost to the US Department of the Treasury also became controversial and hard for the White House to justify given it was three times the amount President George W. Bush had said he wanted when he called on Congress to codify a national energy strategy in spring 2001.
Yet despite these differences, Tauzin said the political will may still exist to pass such a bill in order to reduce dependence on foreign oil and provide jobs. "With energy prices rising and America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil growing, the need to enact a comprehensive national energy bill is crystal clear to everyone except for a handful of disgruntled senators," he said.
"Single-handedly, they are holding up action on a much-needed bill, which will provide jobs to nearly 1 million Americans and make our nation's energy supplies more stable and affordable in the future. The president supports our bill along with the majority of members of both the House and Senate. Clearly, the time has come to stop playing politics and start putting people back to work again," Tauzin added.
Both the House and Senate are expected back briefly the week of Dec. 8 to finish work on a catch-all spending bill. But energy legislation talks are not expected to resume until January, congressional leadership sources said.
