The ranking energy lawmakers in the Senate and House, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), met for the first time Thursday in their roles as committee chairmen and vowed to work out their differences with the broad energy bill.

“[The] meeting marks our first as the energy committee chairmen from our respective houses, and it was both cordial and productive. We established a dialogue and laid the foundation for a successful relationship,” said Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Barton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a joint statement.

The “topic was the energy bill, and neither of us is willing to abandon the work that has gone into generating a comprehensive package,” the two lawmakers noted. “We have directed House and Senate staff experts to continue discussions, but with new vigor. We intend to roll up our sleeves and try to find common ground on which a package of legislation can be built and presented.

“We both recognize that any successful policy agreement must attract broad bipartisan support in both houses of Congress, and that is our goal. [This] meeting was the first, but not the last, and we will continue getting together regularly on this and other issues,” they said.

Domenici and Barton face difficult challenges in the months ahead, not the least of which is getting an energy bill out of the Senate. The House handily passed a comprehensive energy measure (HR 6) last November, but the Senate hasn’t been able to get its act together on energy legislation.

To break the logjam, the Senate earlier this month attached the 10-year, $13 billion tax package of its energy bill to a corporate tax cut measure that is expected to be taken up soon. After this is completed, Domenici has said he will turn to the policy portion of the energy measure and move that separately.

Even if the strategy works, there remain several critical issues that the House and Senate will have to reconcile. For example, the House energy bill includes provisions for a liability waiver for producers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, and for drilling in the coastal area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. These aren’t found in the Senate bill.

The House and Senate bills also differ widely on the amount of the tax package. The Senate bill proposes $13 billion in tax incentives and benefits, while the House tax package totals $23.5 billion.

The Senate bill contains a floor price for natural gas produced in Alaska and transported over a proposed pipeline that would stretch to markets in the Lower 48 states. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) fought and won a fight to exclude this provision from the bill last year. It’s unlikely that he has mellowed on the issue since then.

Observers of Capitol Hill politics aren’t holding out much hope for an energy measure this year, however. “It’s sort of like the boy who cried wolf,” said one gas industry source, when asked what he thought of the pledges to pass an energy bill this year.

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