Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he will begin bipartisan talks soon with committee members on the best way to proceed with comprehensive energy legislation this year.

He noted that the committee-sponsored conference on Monday, which addressed a broad gamut of natural gas issues, will lay the groundwork for upcoming discussions of the bill (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25). Domenici and the committee are expected to select the best natural gas proposals offered by industry, regulators and Wall Street, and incorporate them in a gas title to an energy bill, according to Domenici spokeswoman Marnie Funk.

“It’s too soon to know” which proposals will be selected for the bill, she told NGI Tuesday. The proposals made at the Monday conference focused on ways to increase domestic gas supply, liquefied natural gas jurisdictional issues, gas pipeline constraints, environmental matters, conservation and efficiency and the reporting of market information.

“There is strong support for this energy [natural gas] that crosses party lines and regional differences. We all agree that we must act proactively to address the looming gap between supply and demand,” Domenici said.

“I will follow this conference with a series of bipartisan discussions with my colleagues about the surest way to incorporate the best of [Monday’s] proposals into energy legislation for consideration by the committee and full Senate,” he noted.

Funk said an energy bill with a gas title will probably be ready in the March time frame. She did not dismiss the possibility that a senator may offer a stand-alone natural gas bill during the new Congress.

On the House side, Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) told FERC Chairman Pat Wood and other Commission members that he expected lawmakers there to “move quickly” on energy legislation this year, using last year’s conference report on H.R. 6 as a starting point for the bill.

Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, submitted several written questions on Monday to Wood and the other three commissioners, seeking input for the bill.

Specifically, the House lawmaker asked the Commission whether it had “adequate authority” to obtain market information necessary for price discovery and effective monitoring of natural gas and electric markets; had sufficient civil and criminal penalty authority to punish violators of the Natural Gas Act and Federal Power Act; and could make an Alaskan natural gas pipeline a reality in this decade.

Wood cited these as FERC’s top priorities when he appeared before the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee in March 2003. “Are these topics still the Commission’s top legislative priorities?” Dingell asked Wood. “If not, please explain and describe your new priorities, including legislative language.”

During his subcommittee appearance, the FERC chairman also called for “legislation on a number of other electricity issues, including encouragement of membership in regional transmission organizations (RTOs), transmission rate incentives and transmission siting authority,” according to Dingell. “Does current law provide the Commission with adequate authority to address these matters? If you believe new authority is needed, please provide legislative language,” he said.

The H.R. 6 conference report includes a number of other provisions related to electricity matters, including standard market design, native load service obligation, voluntary transmission pricing plans and the sanctity of contracts, Dingell noted. “Does the Commission need new legislative authority with respect to these four areas? If the answer…is yes, does the Commission favor enactment of the specific language in the conference report?”

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