Nick Snow
Washington Editor
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 -- US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) said he does not expect to see a reworked 2007 federal energy bill to appear before the Senate takes its Thanksgiving recess in 2 weeks.
Bingaman said US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) would make the final decision on bringing the bill back before Congress. "But given the amount of time and competition from other issues, I don't think it looks likely," he told reporters at a Nov. 5 breakfast briefing sponsored by Energy Daily and the American Gas Association.
Committee chairs and majority staff members have been meeting for weeks to reconcile differences between energy bills passed by the House and Senate earlier this year. Bingaman said the staffs have made progress in resolving questions involving the bills' energy efficiency and public lands provisions.
Resolution of tax questions is less clear, but the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees' staffs are working hard, he indicated. "The House's tax package was substantially smaller than the Senate Finance Committee's. I think both staffs are looking at all possible offsets but haven't settled on which will be in the final bill," Bingaman said.
He rejected the idea advanced by Republicans and some trade associations that 2007 federal energy legislation will have no provisions designed to increase domestic production. "Most of those charges have no basis in fact. There are incentives to produce more biofuels. I think most of this criticism is directed toward provisions in the House bill. I don't think they'd have much impact," he said.
He also said he thinks enough congressional Republicans will support the reworked energy bill for it to pass despite Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voting against the earlier Senate bill. Bingaman said he does not see President George W. Bush's veto threats as much of an obstacle but added, "I don't think there's been a lot of forward-leaning by the administration to get Republican members to support energy legislation."
Congressional Democrats also are waiting to see how the Bush administration responds to last week's federal appeals court decision in Kerr-McGee's challenge of efforts to collect additional deepwater royalties (OGJ Online, Nov. 1, 2007).
"It's a case of a company asserting its legal rights. But I think the government needs to get a reasonable return on public resources. Some of the actions we've seen by the administration suggest that it believes companies haven't been paying their fair share. I was particularly encouraged last week when the [US Minerals Management Service] announced it will collect 18.75% in royalties from new production in the Gulf of Mexico," Bingaman said (OGJ, Nov. 5, 2007, Newsletter).
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
