The Senate is expected to take up consideration of a Republican-crafted comprehensive energy package next Monday, with a vote to come within two to three weeks, according to Capitol Hill observers.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants the full Senate to vote on broad-based energy legislation before Congress leaves for its Memorial Day recess, and to begin a conference to reconcile the House and Senate energy bills promptly when lawmakers return, they said. He expects an energy bill to be on President Bush’s desk by the August recess.

This is a “fairly ambitious schedule” that Domenici has laid out, said a committee aide, but he noted the senator “moved the bill smartly through committee.” He believes Domenici will try to exert the same discipline over the bill on the floor.

The “most high-profile difference” between the House and Senate energy bills is oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The House measure that passed in early April would open a small part of the coastal plain of ANWR to drilling, while the Senate bill is silent on the issue.

Martin Edwards, vice president of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas of America Association (INGAA), doubts that ANWR drilling will make it out of conference. If Senate conferees were to agree to ANWR development — which is a big stretch — House conferees would have to make too many concessions, he noted.

The electricity titles in the House and Senate measures could turn out to be contentious items in conference simply because of their breadth, Edwards told NGI.

He thinks the Senate energy package “has a good chance of passing,” although Republicans and Democrats are at odds on a number of issues. The legislation “has got a lot of producer-oriented things,” including billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives to spur production onshore and in federal waters, up to $18 billion in loan guarantees to build an Alaskan gas pipeline, and a pilot program to house federal permitting agencies under one roof to make it easier for producers to obtain authorizations to drill.

In addition to supporting construction of an Alaskan pipeline, the Senate bill directs the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to identify and develop utility corridors across federal lands for building pipelines and transmission systems, Edwards said.

While Domenici cheered his committee’s passage of the bill on Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) was quick to point out the measure’s shortcomings. “The bill does not do enough, or goes in the wrong direction, on too many key energy issues. While I hope that some of these issues can be better resolved on the floor, I cannot support this energy bill.”

The legislation “lacks the balance needed to be a really effective energy policy for our country,” noted Bingaman, ranking Democrat on the committee. It fails to adequately protect electricity consumers nationwide from market manipulation, as well as “cripples” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s ability to respond to power crises that may arise over the next two years, and does “very little” to increase renewable energy’s role in our energy system, he said.

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