Domenici

Republican leaders hope to overcome Democratic objections and move their agreement on energy legislation through a House-Senate conference on Nov. 17 and then through final congressional approval by the end of the week.

The agreement announced Nov. 14 by lead GOP negotiators, Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin of Louisiana, was a Republican-only document. GOP staffers said $20-billion-plus bill, was crafted to try to gain enough support from both parties. For instance, because of strong Democratic opposition to oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the bill doesn't open up the refuge to energy exploration.

Tauzin

But a sign of trouble emerged: After reviewing the voluminous draft over the weekend, Democrats on the Senate energy committee issued a statement Nov. 16 listing 20 points they objected to, in many areas of the bill.

Nevertheless, if the package remains close to intact, it would have wide-ranging effects on all sectors of the energy business--and on the construction that supports it.

Key elements of the GOP plan include:

• Incentives to build a $20-billion natural gas pipeline from Alaska to Chicago, including $18 billion in federal loan guarantees, plus accelerated depreciation and a tax credit.
  
• Sets goal of expanding U.S. ethanol fuel production to 5 billion gallons by 2012, up from estimated 2.7 billion gal. this year. Doesn't mandate offset of revenue lost to Highway Trust Fund.
• Repeal of the New Deal-era Public Utility Holding Company Act, thus easing restrictions on mergers between utility companies.
• A $1-billion program over 10 years funded in part by oil royalties to restore and protect threatened U.S. coastal area lands and habitat and infrastructure. About half of the money will go to Louisiana.
• Incentives to spark construction of nuclear reactors that use advanced technology.
• Renews Price-Anderson Act nuclear liability protection for 20 years.
• Aims to boost clean coal technology through authorizations of about $600 million a year for Dept. of Energy research and development, plus $1.8 billion to DOE for a "Clean Coal Power Initiative," funding projects with clean coal technology that can reduce emissions of pollutants.
• Mandates 20% cut in energy used in federal buildings by 2013, with funding for efficiency programs.
• Directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to start an incentive-rate rulemaking to boost spending on electricity transmission.
• Provides for establishing electricity reliability standards that would be mandatory, not voluntary.
• Expedites siting of transmission lines on federal and private land; broadens to electricity transmission lines the same kind of federal eminent domain now in place for gas pipelines.
• Delays implementation of FERC's Standard Market Design for utility companies until Dec.31, 2006, though utilities can choose to join Regional Transmission Organizations voluntarily before that date.
• Gives producers of the gasoline additive MTBE liability protection.

(Photos courtesy of Sen. Pete Domenici's office and Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin's office)