Vice President Dick Cheney says he expects to see a broad range of energy legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush by the end of the year.

“I personally am optimistic that we will get good [energy] legislation out of the Congress before the end of the year,” he said during a town hall meeting on the president’s national energy plan in Monroeville, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh late Monday. He was joined by Pennsylvania’s Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, the state’s Republican delegation from Capitol Hill — Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum and Rep. Melissa Hart — and senior administration staff officials.

As Congress considers cutting back key administration proposals to beef up domestic production, and the urgency of the power shortages in the West has been lessened somewhat, Cabinet members were dispatched throughout the country Monday in an effort to resuscitate the public’s interest in the Bush administration’s energy proposals, which were unveiled in May but are stalled at the legislative level.

In what some observers perceived as a major shift in energy strategy, Cheney and senior administration staff in Pittsburgh touted the Bush proposals to improve energy conservation and efficiency, and to raise funding to assist low-income and senior citizens with their energy bills. Conservation “is a must in this plan,” said Cheney adviser Mary Matalin, who reported that many of the Bush conservation proposals would be marked up in Congress this week. But while conservation is a “great start,” she said it was only part of the solution. “If you want to close that gap [between supply and demand], you have to increase conventional production” as well.

“Most of the financial incentives that we recommended to the Congress…are in the area of conservation and renewables,” said Cheney, who led the task force that drafted the Bush energy plan. Due to technology advancements, “our ability to go out and…produce more and conserve more and get more efficient and enhance the environment is there.” Because western Pennsylvania is a region that is rich in coal reserves, he also accented the Bush energy policy’s initiatives for clean-coal technology.

Saying he could “appreciate the squeeze” facing senior citizens in the state, Ridge said he believed the long-term solution to high energy costs was the introduction of retail choice nationwide. This would give electric customers access to the lowest priced reserves within and outside of Pennsylvania, he noted.

Andrew Lundquist, executive director of the energy task force, said the Department of Energy was “actively” drafting retail competition legislation, and was “looking to release that in the next month or so.” The measure, among other things, would address increased electricity competition, greater energy efficiency and enhanced use of renewable energy, he noted.

If the country is to obtain comprehensive energy legislation this year, “we [have to] get everybody to sort of settle down a bit in terms of the debate [and] calmly listen to one another,” Cheney advised. “There’s a reason why nobody’s addressed this [energy] in recent years. These are tough issues, and I’ll be the first to admit…it’s going to involve controversy, it’s going to involve tough decisions, but we need to do it,” he noted

“The House, I think, will take up a bill on the floor before the August break,” Cheney predicted. “I met last week with what’s called the centrist coalition of the Senate,” which is chaired by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and John Breaux (D-LA), “and they’re very interested in moving forward on a bipartisan basis on the program.”

Cheney noted that he’s also conferred with Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “He hasn’t moved a bill yet. But I’m hopeful that he will, and that we’ll have legislation before the end of the year.”

Santorum accused Senate Democrats of stalling on energy legislation, and called on Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to make it a priority. “The Senate Democrats have offered nothing, absolutely nothing as far as an energy policy. They have scheduled no floor time for debate or consideration of an energy bill.”

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