Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the broad energy bill that calls for the creation of a commission made up of consumer groups, energy executives, small businesses and Bush administration officials to look into the causes of energy price spikes and issue recommendations on ways to avert them in the future.

The measure received strong bipartisan support during debate on the energy bill last year. Durbin re-introduced it as stand-alone legislation earlier this month, and now will seek to attach it to the Senate energy bill when lawmakers resume debate on the legislation sometime in July.

Members of the proposed Consumer and Small Business Energy Commission would be appointed on a bipartisan basis by leaders of the Senate and House, and the president. They would examine the potential causes for fluctuations in the prices for gasoline, residential heating oil, and residential, commercial and industrial natural gas.

Some of the causes to be reviewed would be inadequate inventories, supply disruptions, refinery capacity limits, insufficient infrastructure, regulatory problems, flawed deregulation, excessive consumption, over-reliance on foreign supplies, lack of investment in research and development of alternative fuel sources, opportunistic behavior by energy companies, and abuse of market power. An executive committee would issue a final report, which would include recommendations.

“We are in serious need of a comprehensive investigation into these problems,” Durbin said in a prepared statement. “A variety of studies and hearings have examined pieces of the puzzle, but we need to look at the entire picture, focusing on price fluctuations of all consumer energy products. Only by putting consumers, small businesses and representatives of the energy industry and government together at the table looking at the full range of possible causes can we get to the real root of the problem.”

Durbin’s proposal is more comprehensive than an amendment that was approved as part of the Senate energy bill in mid-June. That measure calls for the secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) to undertake a broad analysis of supply and demand issues related solely to natural gas, and to report to Capitol Hill within six months after an energy bill is passed into law (see NGI, June 16).

On the House side, Rep. John E. Peterson (R-PA) is considering introducing a bill that would establish a seven-member independent commission to carry out a “comprehensive analysis” of natural gas supply and demand in the United States, as well as would bar the new construction of gas-fired power generation facilities (see related story).

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