Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) expressed concern Thursday that patience may be growing short for the Senate to pass energy legislation in a comprehensive form.

“I’m worried senators…[that] people aren’t going to wait around too much longer for this bill,” the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said during a hearing examining the price, demand and supply outlooks for crude oil and natural gas.

“They’re going to start picking the good pieces” from the Senate’s pared-down energy measure (S. 2095), and try to pass them as stand-alone bills, Domenici warned. The cost of the Senate bill has been cut to $14 billion from its original $31 billion to attract more support.

“Whether each and every one of us agrees on all of it or not, I hope that we believe we can pass something before the year’s out.” Senate Republican leaders earlier had indicated that an energy bill would be a top priority in 2004, but Domenici’s comment appears to cast doubt on that.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) said this week he believed the Senate now had the 60 votes that are needed to bring the energy bill to the floor for consideration, and that he was working to persuade Democrats not to filibuster the measure.

But the “missing question in his [Daschle’s] statement” is how many amendments will Democrats offer to the Senate bill, Domenici noted. Will it be “five, 10 or 30?” he asked.

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