Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) announced Friday he is putting offintroducing the Senate Republicans’ widely anticipatedcomprehensive energy legislation until the week of Feb. 26, at theearliest.

After meeting with Vice President Richard Cheney last week,Murkowski said Senate Republicans would unveil their energy packagethis Tuesday, but he later pushed back the date to give the JointSenate-House Committee on Taxation time to score the impact of thebill’s proposed tax initiatives on the U.S. Treasury.

Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural ResourcesCommittee, also said he wanted more time to talk over thelegislation with House members Billy Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of theHouse Energy and Commerce Committee, and Joe Barton (R-TX),chairman of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee.

Murkowski was one of several lawmakers in the Senate and House thatmet with Cheney on Capitol Hill last Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Feb. 7).

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