The House of Representatives will be the scene of vigorous debate this week over national energy policy when it takes up, possibly as early as Wednesday, comprehensive energy legislation that includes a number of measures proposed by President Bush.

Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) and other House Republican leaders have vowed to pass comprehensive energy legislation before lawmakers leave for their traditional August recess at the end of this week.

Last Friday, the four House committees that voted out separate energy bills earlier this month came together in a “collaborative effort” to combine their measures into a 510-page omnibus energy bill, Securing America’s Future Energy Act of 2001. The House Rules Committee accepted proposed amendments to H.R. 4 until late Monday, and will hear testimony at 11 a.m. today on the amendments and set the terms for debate on the House floor. The new legislation can be viewed on the Rules Committee’s web site at www.house.gov/rules.

Legislators are preparing to do battle this week over both the content of the energy legislation and the rules that will govern the debate of the bill in the House. “I think they’ll get it [a bill] done” by the end of the week, said a Capitol Hill observer, but a lot hinges on the action that the Rules Committee takes today.

First, the Rules Committee will have to vote to limit the number of amendments that can be offered to the energy bill, he said. This is a “key hurdle,” and without it a House vote on energy legislation would likely be delayed until after recess, the observer told NGI. Second, many agree that a committee vote to allow an amendment to strike drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) during House debate is critical for the legislation to pass this week.

If ANWR is struck, the Hill observer believes passage of comprehensive energy legislation this week is “more certain.” However, if it remains in the bill, the vote on the bill “could go either way” in the House. “I think there are a lot of Republicans who don’t support ANWR. It will be a close vote” if the provision is part of the bill.

In the end, “I think probably the ANWR provision will be struck and the bill will be passed,” he said optimistically. “I’m pretty sure on that. There will be a big debate [on it], and the chips will fall where they may,” he noted.

“I think it’s going to be a very, very challenging debate” with several “difficult” votes this week, said Lee Fuller, vice president of government relations for the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA). Some of the more controversial amendments, he anticipates, will be those to strike ANWR from the bill, raise the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) even higher than already proposed, and a Democratic substitute to H.R. 4.

In a letter to several congressional lawmakers, CMS Energy Chairman William T. McCormick Jr. Monday urged the House to quickly pass its omnibus energy bill, saying it would represent a “significant step forward in the development of a balanced national energy policy that addresses energy supply and demand, as well as environmental protection.”

He further noted that many of the energy problems that are currently plaguing California — the lack of new power plants, inadequate transmission systems, increased power demand and a bottlenecked gas delivery system — are emerging problems in a number of other areas of the nation.

House lawmakers are expected to bring up issues this week related to the California energy crisis, but they aren’t likely to elicit as much controversy as they would have a few months ago, given the marked drop in gas and electricity prices in the West, sources say.

At the same time, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee plans to begin marking up comprehensive energy legislation on Wednesday at 9 :30 a.m., with any eye toward completion in September. “Everyone’s ideas are now on the table — and there are plenty of positions that Democrats and Republicans agree on,” said Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM). “We’re ready to start legislating a policy that will address America’s need to increase domestic energy supplies while ensuring conservation and use of clean, efficient technologies.”

The hearing on Wednesday will focus on the research, development and training provisions of the legislation, he said, adding that a second hearing will be held on Aug. 2 if needed. Bingaman noted that he plans to use the August recess for “discussion and consensus-building” on the more difficult issues, such as electricity.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.