Three House committees and a Senate panel voted out energy bills this week that would provide a host of financial and tax incentives for oil and natural gas producers, strengthen FERC’s enforcement hand somewhat in the energy markets and attempt once again to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to exploration and production activities.

Measures from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Resources Committee will be merged with an estimated $19 billion energy tax bill, which the House Ways and Means panel approved Thursday, into one piece of legislation that could be voted on by the full House as early as next week. “We want to get this out before the [Easter] break next Friday,” a House source told NGI.

The House Resources panel inserted ANWR into its energy bill less than two weeks after Senate Democrats narrowly defeated a Republican campaign to pave the way for drilling in the Arctic refuge. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has said that ANWR will not be part of the Senate’s energy bill, which the panel is expected to begin marking up next Tuesday.

ANWR “[is] going to pass the House so it’s going to be an item in conference,” the House source said. “It will make for a very interesting conference” when the Senate and House meet to hash out a final bill.

An effort by Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) to gut the ANWR portion of the Resources Committee legislation was soundly defeated Wednesday.

In addition to ANWR, the bill calls for the Interior secretary to provide the following:

The measure also would make royalty relief for deepwater production a law, which would make it harder to reverse. Current royalty relief is based on an Interior Department administrative decision. And it would give the Interior secretary permanent authority to continue the agency’s royalty-in-kind program, which allows producers to pay part of their royalty bills with production.

The estimated $15.5 billion tax package passed by the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday would offer several tax credits for traditional oil and gas production, but the focus of the measure is on tax incentives for renewable and alternative fuel production and consumption. It also would provide financial incentives for the construction of a long-line natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the Lower 48 states.

Martin Edwards of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) singled out the action on the Alaskan pipeline as one of the highlights of the marathon House-Senate energy bill markups this week, as well as the defeat of a proposal that could have enhanced states’ abilities to block gas pipeline projects that were inconsistent with their Coastal Zone Management Plans.

As for financial/tax incentives, the Senate Finance initiative would do the following:

The House Ways and Means energy tax measure targets many of the same areas: relief for marginal oil and gas producers; expensing of geological and geophysical costs; a credit for fuel produced from non-conventional sources; and the alternative minimum tax preference for intangible drilling costs.

The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce panel completed its broad-based energy legislation in the early hours Thursday. It gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission some expanded authority to deal with fraud and manipulation in the natural gas and electricity markets, but committee Democrats would have preferred to have seen more — a lot more.

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) was unsuccessful in his effort to gut the entire electricity title of the GOP-crafted bill Wednesday and replace it with one that would have significantly beefed up FERC’s enforcement powers and made greater record-keeping demands on energy companies. He argued that it would prevent the “joyful robbing of the citizenry” by giving the Commission the tools to deal with “serious wrongdoing of every kind.”

Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) said the bill gives the Commission exactly what it asked for: greater civil and criminal penalty authority, stronger investigative tools and the ability to conduct more price discovery.

An attempt by Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) to win refund protection for natural gas customers under the Natural Gas Act, similar to what is already enjoyed by power consumers under the Federal Power Act, also fell flat. She re-introduced her amendment late Wednesday after a “series of discussions” with Tauzin and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) failed to produce a compromise proposal. Her measure was defeated by 32 to 21.

Tauzin on Tuesday had pledged to “work something out” with Schakowsky to provide gas customers with greater protection, but the negotiations apparently reached a stalemate, said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Schakowsky. The lawmaker may continue talks with Tauzin and Barton on the issue, or may try to introduce her amendment during floor debate on the House energy bill, or propose it as a stand-alone bill, he noted. “All the options are on the table.”

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