Democratic and Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Friday said that ongoing talks related to the mark-up of emergency legislation designed to provide relief to the troubled California wholesale energy markets would carry over into next week’s Congressional recess.

Plans by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to mark up the legislation were delayed last week after last-minute negotiations broke out between Democrats and Republicans over the measure (see Daily GPI, May 25). The bill, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), was recently voted out by the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on energy and air quality (see Daily GPI, May 11).

Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee will now try to come up with a bipartisan solution to their differences over the Congressional recess. “Since Congress will soon recess for the Memorial Day holiday — lessening the likelihood that ‘The Emergency Electricity Relief Act’ can make it to the House floor before the weekend — both sides have agreed that we will continue to work over the recess period in hopes of reaching a bipartisan solution,” said Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and Henry Waxman (D-CA) in a joint statement issued last Friday. Tauzin is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Barton, in a separate statement, said that he will work with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) on several amendments with the goal of reporting the bill the week Congress gets back from its recess. “Unfortunately, the down side of waiting is likely to be additional weeks of blackouts and higher than necessary prices for Californians which might have been improved or alleviated,” Barton said.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.