Quick action in the House on comprehensive energy legislation was dealt a blow when the House Resources Committee postponed a markup that was scheduled for Wednesday.

The committee reportedly pushed back its planned markup because one of three other committees with jurisdiction over the energy bill — House Ways and Means — was not ready to move on the measure early in the session. House Ways and Means “needed some extra time” to negotiate the cost and tax portion of the energy bill with the House Budget and House Energy and Commerce Committees, said Martin Edwards, vice president of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA).

Even so, “I think it [the energy bill] is still coming pretty quick. It’s still high priority,” he told NGI. But a leading energy analyst in Washington, DC was less optimistic.

“Every time they [lawmakers] say they’re going to come running, shooting out of the gate, it never happens,” she said. The “initial time line [for the bill] was extraordinarily aggressive,” but that has changed.

At this point, the analyst said, she is “incredibly cynical about the prospects for a bill” emerging from Congress this year. There “is not a strong consensus for just passing HR 6,” which is two years old.

She rejected the suggestion that President Bush’s proposed budget cuts in energy programs for fiscal year 2006 signaled reduced support for comprehensive energy legislation. “No, I don’t think so. It’s not some tea leaf” indicating a change in direction. It’s not unusual for an administration to lowball programs in a budget, only to have Congress put the money back, the analyst said.

Because of the House Resources Committee’s decision to put off its markup, another bill (possibly the surface transportation measure) could move to the House floor more quickly than expected.

Broad energy legislation is “definitely still a top priority” for the House Resources Committee and the entire House, committee spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli. She expects energy legislation to be brought to the House floor within the next month or two.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to proceed with hearings Wednesday and Thursday on the energy bill, according to a committee aide. But “beyond that, I don’t know what the schedule is” for House action on an omnibus energy measure, she said. She anticipates that the House will act on an energy bill “sooner rather than later.”

Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) has pledged to complete action on the energy bill quickly, perhaps by bypassing a markup and sending the bill directly to the floor, the Congressional Green Sheets reported in its Tuesday edition. “Anything is an option at this point,” the House energy committee spokeswoman said, when asked if Barton might forego markup.

The House Science Committee, which has jurisdiction over energy research and development and fossil fuel issues, said it plans to proceed with its scheduled markup of the energy bill on Thursday.

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