Conference Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) on Friday postponed a conference vote on the broad energy bill that was scheduled for Tuesday and scrubbed plans to release the conference report, citing the failure of the House-Senate tax writers to settle their differences on a number of controversial tax items.

This marked the second or third time that Domenici, manger of the energy measure, had to delay a conference vote on the legislation. In a prepared statement, he was not only silent on when a conference session might be re-scheduled, but he seemed to be preparing the public for the possibility that a bill may not make it out of Congress in the remaining weeks of the session.

“I know we will eventually resolve these issues and get an energy bill,” noted Domenici, but he stopped short of saying when that would be. “I would like that to be sooner rather than later, but it may be that more pressure needs to build to force compromise.” Citing his re-election to a six-year term and his plans to continue on as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he said, “I know we will get an energy bill. I will be patient.”

Domenici said he was “deeply disappointed” to delay the conference vote on energy legislation again. He pointed a finger at Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) of the House Ways and Means Committee and Chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) of the Senate Finance Committee, who he said were at an “impasse” on several issues — reform of an excise tax on ethanol, tax credits to encourage alternative energy production, tax incentives to promote the construction of new, cleaner coal plants and upgrades to existing plants, product liability waiver for MTBE producers and revisions to the clean air laws.

“I certainly understand the House’s position on these matters. But I am a pragmatist. I have no intention of emerging from conference with a bill that cannot pass the Senate,” he noted.

Thomas and Grassley, who met in closed-door sessions throughout the week, are having a “dickens of a time coming to agreement on taxes,” said a Democratic aide. “They can’t meet in the middle of the road,” especially on the ethanol issue. Some speculate that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) may take control of the $16 billion tax package from Thomas and Grassley.

Needless to say, plans to release the text of the energy bill report have been put on hold. Domenici and Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) had assured Senate and House negotiators early last week that the conference report on the bill would be circulated to them 48 hours before the scheduled Tuesday session.

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