Broad

Broad energy legislation is dead on Capitol Hill this year, but nobody in Washington, DC, wants to admit this reality, a knowledgeable energy legislative analyst says.

Broad energy legislation is dead on Capitol Hill this year, but nobody in Washington DC wants to admit this reality, a knowledgeable energy legislative analyst says.

As the broad energy bill (HR 6) hangs in the balance in the Senate, representatives of the struggling steel, agriculture and paper industries told a House subcommittee last week that they need fast relief from high natural gas prices. Assurances of lower prices 10 or more years down the road, when liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and Alaska gas are projected to play a bigger role in the U.S. supply mix, don’t help them now, they said.

As the broad energy bill (HR 6) hangs in the balance in the Senate, representatives of the struggling steel, agriculture and paper industries told a House subcommittee that they need fast relief from high natural gas prices. Assurances of lower prices 10 or more years down the road, when liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and Alaska gas are projected to play a bigger role in the U.S. supply mix, won’t do, they said.

The broad energy bill’s proposals putting FERC in the business of collecting prices on natural gas and electricity trades are a bad idea because they would interfere with energy markets and the price discovery process, and would keep FERC from carrying out its more important market-monitoring duties, said Commissioner Sharon Brown-Hruska of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday.

The broad energy bill’s proposals putting FERC in the business of collecting prices on natural gas and electricity trades are a bad idea because they would interfere with energy markets and the price discovery process, and would keep FERC from carrying out its more important market-monitoring duties, said Commissioner Sharon Brown-Hruska of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last Thursday.

Top Republican negotiators on the broad energy bill, Sen Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. W.J. Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, said Friday that a deal was struck on disputed issues in the tax package that allows them to make the text of the bill public on Saturday, and sets the stage for the measure to possibly clear both houses before lawmakers adjourn for the session this week.

The House on Friday defeated an attempt to remove from the broad energy bill a proposal to expand a current exemption for producers from stormwater discharge regulations under federal clean water laws.

Conference Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) on Friday postponed a conference vote on the broad energy bill that was scheduled for Tuesday and scrubbed plans to release the conference report, citing the failure of the House-Senate tax writers to settle their differences on a number of controversial tax items.