Congress Abandons Efforts To Enact Energy Package

by Mike Tomsu, Kathleen Lake, Jamie Serota, Stephen Angle, Christine Vaughn, Donna Bobbish and Frank Verrastro.

New Senate Energy Chairman Vows To Take Up Energy Legislation In Next

Congress

On November 13, 2002, the joint House-Senate conference committee on energy

decided to forego further work on energy legislation this session. Both

Democratic and Republican leaders cited a decided lack of time and consensus on

key provisions of the package, particularly the electricity title, as the

principal reasons.

Leaders from both parties, including Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), who will

chair the Senate Energy Committee in the 108th Congress, already have indicated

that they intend to pursue a new measure when the 108th Congress convenes next

year.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), who chaired the joint

conference committee, had offered conferees a stripped-down energy package that

included only two titles - dealing with pipeline safety and a multi-year

extension of the Price-Anderson Act (providing indemnification to Department of

Energy contractors with respect to nuclear accidents). Tauzin's rationale for

selecting these provisions was that they both had been adopted unanimously by

the conferees in previous meetings. Senate Democrats counter-offered a

significantly larger package of provisions, including tax incentives, clean coal

provisions, efficiency measures and other items on which there appeared to be

consensus. Neither the House nor the Senate packages incorporated provisions

dealing with electricity, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ("ANWR"), ethanol,

global climate change, or language on renewable portfolio standards - several of

the more contentious items debated during the conference. At the end of the day,

however, it became clear to the Members that, with major legislative items still

on the floor calendars, there simply was not enough time to develop, circulate

and pass an acceptable energy package this year before the end of the

session.

Both the House and Senate did approve a stand-alone measure (HR 3609)

addressing pipeline safety titles previously agreed upon by the conferees.

Earlier versions of pipeline safety legislation had been adopted by both

chambers, but then rolled into the energy package. The final version that passed

Congress mandates periodic pipeline safety inspections, increases civil

penalties for violators, provides new funding for research and development and

toughens pipeline operator...