The US congressional energy bill isn't the only game in town. It is true Washington, DC, lobbyists are devoting many, if not most, of their billable hours this fall to the comprehensive energy bill. But the US Congress also is working on many other industry-related issues. Iraq reconstruction, drilling moratoria, clean-air updates, and annual spending bills are part of Capitol Hill's agenda.
Iraq priority
Well before the energy bill is finalized, Congress is expected to pass new funding measures for Iraq. The White House wants $87 billion; about $66 billion is for military operations. The remaining $20.3 billion is for reconstruction, including $2.1 billion for oil infrastructure. White House officials say new infrastructure contracts will be competitively bid, as opposed to an earlier, open-ended and controversial contract that went directly to Halliburton Co. for war-related oil field repairs. Lawmakers are expected to approve the complete spending request, but not before Democratic leaders criticize the earlier Halliburton deal, which could reach $1.3 billion by December, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Highway spending
Congress also is considering a 6-year massive highway spending measure that politically speaking is even more cumbersome than the energy bill.
Current highway legislation expires Sept. 3, but lawmakers are expected to pass a 5-month extension to buy time. Under discussion are proposals that raise gasoline taxes and change the way state officials use clean-fuel programs to meet federal clean air requirements. Whether a gasoline tax hike survives final legislation is unknown. But another highway construction issue addressing ethanol subsidies is expected to sail through Congress—perhaps as soon as this month—in order to help push the energy bill to the finish line. The legislation revises the way the US Department of the Treasury accounts for ethanol-blended gasoline. Under the pending plan, the cost of the current ethanol tax incentive would basically be taken from the US government's general revenue stream instead of the highway trust fund, which gets its money from fuel taxes.
Other spending
By month's end Congress also is theoretically supposed to finish work on the 13 annual spending bills that fund the federal government; the government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30. But as with the highway bill, lawmakers are expected to extend the deadlines on most of those bills.
Of interest to industry is the Interior Appropriations bill. It covers fossil energy programs within the Department of Energy, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and the entire budget for the Department of the Interior. Some lawmakers are expected to use this and other spending bills as a way to stall or block White House policy preferences. So-called legislative riders may pop up this year regarding Environmental Protection Agency efforts to streamline clean-air rules under the new source review program, for example. Drilling moratoria also have been popular, although much of what Congress proposes each year is already enforced administratively.
