US lawmakers have killed a 2-year effort to pass comprehensive energy legislation.
"Senate Democratic and Republican conferees, after a joint meeting today (Nov. 13), declared that efforts to pass an energy bill this year are ended," said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "With the House expected to adjourn tomorrow, the odds were long, the time was short. Too short. "
Lawmakers earlier in the week briefly considered a so-called "energy lite" proposal by the House that included pipeline safety and nuclear plant insurance, two major issues lawmakers agreed on earlier this fall. But dozens of other pending proposals, including expanded drilling incentives, favorable tax treatments for construction of a new Alaska natural gas pipeline, updated clean fuel rules, and royalty reform measures will be now considered at an undetermined future date.
An exception was US pipeline safety reauthorization legislation, which passed shortly after the energy bill was shelved (OGJ Online, Nov. 15, 2002).
Possible resurrection
Given the upcoming power shift to the Republican Party this January (OGJ, Nov. 18, 2002, p. 22), Congressional leaders and the White House made it clear that they prefer revisiting an energy reform bill next session.
Senate Republican leaders have pledged to resurrect an energy reform package as soon as January.
"Time ran out, but the need for an energy bill has not," said Sen. Frank Murkowksi (R-Alas.), a dogged supporter of expanded drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, who will be leaving the Senate Dec. 2 to become governor of that state. "I remain convinced that in very near future, Congress will not only produce an energy package but that it will allow for the safe exploration of ANWR."
Democrats are less hopeful there will be enough interest to tackle the measure, especially given that lawmakers still must address long-delayed spending bills. Indeed, Murkowski's Democratic counterpart, Jeff Bingaman said that, barring a major crisis, Congress may lose interest in the subject.
"We missed an opportunity to do something good for the country," said Bingaman, the outgoing chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. "The political will to act did not match the rhetoric of the past 2 years on the need to address looming problems such as electricity reform, natural gas supply, and our increasing thirst for foreign oil for transportation. I think the task of coming up with a comprehensive approach to energy policy, absent a major crisis, will only grow more difficult in the next Congress."
Ethanol to fight another day
One high-profile casualty of failed energy deliberations was the push for clean fuels. Among the items under consideration: a phase-out of the clean fuel additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, an accompanying fuel ethanol mandate plan, and product liability protection for MTBE producers. Both supporters and opponents of the clean fuel title vowed to press the issue early next year with the new Congress.
Frank Maisano, spokesman for the Oxygenated Fuels Association, a group representing MTBE producers, said his group is hopeful that Congress will craft a more "balanced" motor fuel policy next year. "Next year, starting from a clean slate, it is our hope that a more constructive approach to motor fuels policy can be undertaken. We will again work hard to achieve that result," he said.
OFA warned that the "ill-conceived effort to ban MTBE would have resulted in potential fuel shortages in our nation's largest cities. Further, the size of the ethanol mandate proposed by the Senate could well have undermined important energy and environmental objectives to the detriment of the nation as a whole."
Supporters of the clean fuel plan offered a different view.
"The fuels agreement and ethanol continue to enjoy strong bipartisan, bicameral support. Further, the need to address water-polluting MTBE, the inflexibility of the oxygen standard, and (efforts) to promote renewable fuels will not go away; it will only intensify," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, which represents ethanol producers. "We will continue to work with leaders from both parties and both houses of Congress to pass the fuels agreement, either as a part of an energy bill or on its own, as early as possible next year. We feel strongly that pending MTBE bans in the Northeast will compel a quick resolution to this issue in the 108th Congress."
