Senate Fails to Resurrect Stalled Energy Bill
Thu Apr 29, 2004 02:16 PM ET

By Tom Doggett and Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate failed on Thursday to
resurrect stalled energy legislation, with votes falling short
to back a doubling in U.S. ethanol use or push for a much
broader package of energy reforms.

Legislation to carry out the first overhaul of U.S. energy
policy in more than a decade has been bogged down in the Senate
for months, and time is running out to move major legislation
before the congressional and presidential campaign season.

After two procedural votes, senators were unable to get the
energy bill, or at least the popular section on ethanol use,
back on track for prompt consideration.

Democratic Leader Tom Daschle could not garner enough votes to
proceed with plucking the ethanol provision out of the energy
bill and attach it to a pending Internet tax bill.

Lawmakers also rejected an alternative plan from Energy
Committee chairman Pete Domenici to have a vote on adding the
broader energy bill as an amendment to the Internet measure.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist supported more ethanol
production, but said it should be part of a bigger energy bill
that also modernizes the nation's electric grid, backs an
Alaskan natural gas pipeline and promotes renewable energy
sources.

"We should not break apart the energy bill and attempt to pass
it piecemeal," said Frist. "We in the United States need a
comprehensive energy policy."

The proposal to double ethanol use to 5 billion gallons a year
in 2012 is one of the most popular parts of the energy bill.

The House of Representatives has passed energy legislation that
differs from what the Senate has proposed.

House Republican leaders, for example, demand the energy bill
include protection against product-defect lawsuits for makers of
methyl tertiary butyl ether, a fuel additive and rival to
ethanol, which is distilled from corn. Opposition to the MTBE
language helped mire the energy bill in the Senate.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
To get off the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to:
[log in to unmask]