Capitol

Rising gasoline prices have re-ignited calls on Capitol Hill for a windfall tax on major energy producers’ profits. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, over the weekend said lawmakers should consider levying the tax.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) was taken to a Washington, DC-area hospital Thursday after suffering a heart attack following a conference committee session on Capitol Hill. Barton, 56, was “resting comfortably after Thursday evening’s heart attack,” his office reported. His physician, Dr. Jonathan Samuel Reiner of George Washington University Hospital, “has expressed…confidence in a full and complete recovery,” said a Barton press aide in a statement. The aide added that she expected Barton to go home within a few days. Barton is chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee and was one of the chief architects of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which Congress passed in July.

While there will be “a lot of noise” on Capitol Hill in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, energy analyst Christine Tezak doubts there will be “substantive legislation” adopted to change the way domestic energy markets operate.

As the Senate began its second day of debate on the omnibus energy bill, President Bush on Wednesday called on Capitol Hill lawmakers to stop sparring over the controversial issues like methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and get a bill to his desk by the end of summer.

While rising gasoline prices have captured the attention of Capitol Hill and the mainstream media in past weeks, the spurt in gasoline costs is “nearly inconsequential” when compared to the sharp run-up in natural gas prices over the past years, said the American Chemistry Council (ACC) President Greg Lebedev on Thursday.

Pressure is rising on Capitol Hill for lawmakers to take action on stalled comprehensive energy legislation, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on Wednesday. He also gave a thumbs down to the idea of breaking pieces of the energy bill off and trying to move them as separate measures.

As the budget deficit becomes a top concern of Republicans on Capitol Hill, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) signaled Monday that he plans to significantly scale back the cost of the $31 million omnibus energy bill and send a leaner measure to the Senate floor later this month.

House and Senate negotiators made some progress last week on broad energy legislation — mostly on issues unrelated to crude oil and natural gas — but they had their work interrupted for two days by the arrival of Hurricane Isabel. Negotiators met with President Bush before leaving town ahead of the storm, and assured him an energy bill would be on his desk by mid-October.

On a day when the Aug. 14 blackout dominated Capitol Hill, a major interstate natural gas pipeline group last Wednesday urged the top energy lawmakers in the Senate and House not to overlook the importance of natural gas as they move to conference on a comprehensive energy bill, particularly its role in producing electricity.