Top House-Senate Republican negotiators are shooting to have a conference committee vote on the final report for a broad energy bill by Friday, but they acknowledge that this might not occur if negotiations over the multi-billion tax title of the measure are not completed, and internal GOP differences over the electricity and ethanol provisions are not resolved by then.

The situation is “very fluid” at this point, said a Capitol Hill press aide, who conceded that a conference committee vote on the final report may have to wait until the Senate returns from a recess scheduled for the week of Oct. 6.

Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA), who are overseeing the conference negotiations, released late Monday a second “discussion” draft of all of the titles that have been negotiated so far, including the Alaska natural gas pipeline, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) development, automobile efficiency, clean coal technology, Department of Energy (DOE) management, energy efficiency, hydroelectricity, hydrogen, Indian energy, nuclear, oil and gas, geothermal, renewable energy and vehicles and fuels.

The second “discussion draft” reflects changes recommended by both Republican and Democratic conferees to the original Republican drafts of the energy bill, which have been released over the past few weeks. As much as half of the revisions came from the Democrats, said Marnie Funk, a Republican spokeswoman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Conferees will have two to three days to review the revisions, which can be seen at https://energycommerce.house.gov.

“We’re not very hopeful or optimistic that they’re going to make wholesale changes” to the GOP drafts, said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for the Democratic members of the Senate Energy Committee, prior to the release of the second discussion draft.

The latest discussion draft does not target ethanol, electricity and the tax provisions, which still are being negotiated. Domenici and Tauzin have not indicated yet when these provisions will be released.

“There’s all kinds of meetings going on on Capitol Hill” between House and Senate Republicans and with Democrats with respect to these issues, Wicker noted Monday. “This is where people really get serious about these things because there’s no second chance” to amend the conference report once it’s sent to the House and Senate for a vote.

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