Oil lobbyists have been asking each other all year if Congress would pass an energy reform bill this session.
Now, with only a few legislative days remaining before a scheduled Oct. 3 adjournment by Congress, they say, "Don't bet on it."
A House-Senate conference committee working to merge the large, omnibus energy bills made almost no progress in its first two meetings. Even by Congress' own standards, progress was dismal: only a tentative agreement on some energy efficiency provisions.
CONFEREES' VIEWS
Bennett Johnston (D-La.), leader of the Senate conferees, warned, "Our chances of getting a bill at the rate we're going is no better than 50-50. But the dead cat's not going to be at my door because I'm willing to negotiate."
John Dingell (D-Mich.), senior House conferee, replied, "The House is going to try any way we can to expedite this conference. We already have altered our process so much we are hardly consulting our own conferees."
After the second markup session, Deputy Energy Sec. Linda Stuntz tersely complained that chances for the bill are fading rapidly.
A veteran of many conference committees when she was a Capitol Hill aide, Stuntz observed the conferees have yet to discuss tough issues like offshore leasing bans and states' prorationing of gas production.
And the administration may be hindering the process with its last minute attempts to influence the final version.
Energy Sec. James Watkins warned President Bush would be urged to veto the bill unless conferees delete the House and Senate offshore leasing bans and House provisions to control state prorationing, buy back some offshore leases, use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to blunt petroleum price increases, and establish a 50 million bbl refined petroleum reserve.
Watkins also listed about 35 other "major problems" the Department of Energy has with the legislation.
That "wish list" is not fooling conferees, who know the Bush administration would be delighted to sign any omnibus energy bill just before the November elections.
Conferees no doubt are puzzled by Bush's latest stand against offshore leasing bans, especially after a speech Stuntz delivered last week.
She told an energy group, "The president believes strongly that a cornerstone of sound energy policy is support for our domestic energy producers. Thus, he has made clear his opposition to long term congressional moratoria on exploration and production of the Outer Continental Shelf."
REALITY CHECK
It's time for a reality check at DOE.
It was Bush who announced the sweeping 10 year bans on leasing off all the West Coast and much of the East Coast (OGJ, July 2, 1990, p. 26).
Congress may have expanded that some, but the bills mostly just codify what Bush and his Minerals Management Service have declared (OGJ, June 15, p. 15).
Copyright 1992 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
