President Bush will sign the sweeping energy bill into law next Monday at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM, said Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, the Republican chief Senate architect of the measure (HR 6).

“Before we put the energy bill together, President Bush promised me that he would sign it in New Mexico. I’m pleased…that he has kept that promise,” the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said Tuesday. New Mexico also is home to Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the top Senate Democratic negotiator on the bill.

No further information on the timing of the signing event or who will participate were available. The details will be left to the White House, according to a spokeswoman on the Senate energy panel.

Before departing for its August recess, the Republican-led Congress last week approved a bipartisan energy bill conference report that overhauls U.S. energy policy for the first time in 13 years. The measure includes items to bolster production of oil, natural gas, electricity and renewable fuels, as well as the construction of new liquefied natural gas import terminals, pipelines and gas storage facilities.

It also repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, seeks to upgrade the reliability of the power transmission grid, includes provisions to expand the nuclear industry in the U.S. and contains $14.5 billion in energy tax incentives.

The favorable votes by the House and Senate ended a four-year stalemate over energy legislation, and cleared the way for the Bush White House to receive the measure ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline set by the president.

The bill is a significant victory for Bush, who has been pressing for a national energy policy since he first took office in early 2001. He will sign the measure into law even though its fails to deliver some key items, such as drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and offers oil and gas producers more tax incentives than he would prefer.

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