Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) said Tuesday that Senate action on energy legislation is not going to happen this year, but Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) remains undeterred.

From the Senate floor, Murkowski issued an alert to “all my colleagues of my intent to use whatever means are necessary to get an energy bill before this Senate before we recess” in mid-December for the year. Murkowski, a leading proponent of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), has threatened to filibuster legislation that is favored by the Democrats in order to force a vote on ANWR.

In order to avoid a showdown over energy on the Senate floor, he proposed that Daschle introduce “his version” of an energy bill this week, and then allow the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to meet next week to consider it. If that would happen, “I am confident that we will be able to report bipartisan legislation in time for consideration by the full Senate,” he said. Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) recently put the finishing touches on a mega-energy bill that Daschle ordered.

The Alaskan lawmaker made the remarks from the Senate floor after Daschle on Tuesday said energy legislation would have to be delayed until next year. Daschle, however, pledged to bring energy legislation up for floor debate during the “first work period” of next year, which would be before the Senate recesses for Presidents Day in mid-February.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) accused Daschle of holding the energy bill hostage, and called on the Senate leader to “stop sandbagging key components” of the Senate agenda. “The Senate is morally obligated to send President Bush…an energy plan,” as well as a defense bill and economic stimulus bill before it adjourns for the year, he said.

Failure of the Senate to act on an energy bill before adjournment would represent a major setback for the Bush administration, which wants a stand-alone energy bill from Congress this year.

The House passed a comprehensive energy bill, H.R. 4, just prior to the August recess, which calls for the opening of ANWR to oil and natural gas drilling and major tax breaks/incentives for the energy industry. Murkowski claimed that if the Senate leadership had not undergone a change from Republican to Democratic this summer, the Senate also would have voted out major energy legislation before the August recess.

Murkowski indicated that opening ANWR was especially critical now in light of heightened tensions with Iraq, a major OPEC oil producer, and the recent advisory issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about potential terrorist attacks on domestic natural gas supplies.

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