Mary O'Driscoll, E&E Daily senior reporter

Tax and budget questions will keep the energy bill off the House
floor until at least the end of March, House Majority Leader Tom
DeLay (R-Texas) said yesterday.

The House put the brakes on its aggressive energy bill strategy
this week so that Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe
Barton (R-Texas) can meet with Budget Committee Chairman Jim
Nussle (R-Iowa) and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill
Thomas (R-Calif.) to discuss the budget and tax implications of
a new energy bill, DeLay told reporters.

The committee chairmen are expected to meet soon to discuss how
to address energy industry tax incentives, how high the bill's
price tag can go, and whether there will be a need for budget
offsets -- all issues that must be considered before the House
can take up this year's version of the energy bill. DeLay said
it will take a couple of weeks to work this out, a timeframe
that scuttles the House's initial plans to make quick work of
the energy bill before the end of next week, when the Presidents
Day recess begins.

Sources on and off the Hill also attributed the slowdown to the
need to give lawmakers more time to consider the energy
legislation, as some members pushed back against House leaders'
earlier plans to simply pass last session's energy conference
report. The slower process now means the House most likely will
take up class action, and possibly highway reauthorization,
before considering the energy bill.

That should be good news to Energy and Commerce Democrats, who
have scheduled a news conference this morning to complain about
being kept out of the energy bill deliberations and to call for
a full committee markup of the legislation. The committee meets
this afternoon to hear from Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on
the DOE budget and on energy policy issues, and the Energy and
Air Quality Subcommittee meets tomorrow to hear from a range of
energy interest groups and associations on various energy policy
issues. There is no committee schedule for next week or beyond.

Tax and budget issues

Energy tax and budget issues are key to the makeup of this
year's energy bill. In the last session, the H.R. 6 conference
report was scored at $30 billion in tax incentives and program
expenditures. That figure caused problems with the White House,
whose preference was for a bill closer to $9 billion, and in the
Senate, where deficit hawks considered the bill a budget-buster.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete
Domenici (R-N.M.), who again is shepherding energy legislation
through the Senate, agreed the budget and tax issues are an
important element of the debate.

"We need to get the revenue numbers," he told reporters
yesterday. "We have to go back now and see how much" money is
available.

Treasury Department revenue projections for the next 10 years
show the Bush administration will be seeking $6.69 billion in
tax credits and related policies for energy programs. However,
DOE officials said at their budget briefing earlier this week
that they do not know if the $6.69 billion figure represents the
limit of the administration's support for tax credits and other
spending in the energy bill this year.

The energy-related tax credits, according to Treasury Department
documents, include extensions of the Section 45 tax credits for
wind, biomass and landfill gas tax credits that expire at the
end of this year, valued at $1.78 billion; tax credits for
residential solar systems, at $104 million; modification of the
tax treatment for nuclear decommissioning funds, at $1.88
billion; tax credits for the purchase of certain hybrid and fuel
cell vehicles, at $2.53 billion; and continued tax credits for
heat and power properties, at $394 million. Those figures
represent costs over 10 years.

Also figuring into the energy bill budget debate is oil and gas
exploration in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. Treasury's
revenue projections assume ANWR leasing revenues of $2.4 billion
in 2007, to be equally split with the state of Alaska, a figure
that is equal to the leasing revenues that were included in the
proposed fiscal year 2005 budget. The leasing revenues issue is
key as the Senate is expected to try to authorize exploration in
ANWR through the budget reconciliation process.

President Bush stumps for energy legislation

Meanwhile, President Bush made a strong call for the energy bill
during a speech yesterday to the Detroit Economic Club, saying a
"pro-growth" economic strategy for the country must ensure
affordable, reliable energy supplies.

Bush invoked the August 2003 power blackout that affected
thousands from Detroit to New York, nuclear power, conservation
and domestic production of oil and gas as well as ethanol, clean
coal, hybrid and fuel-cell vehicles and ANWR. "For the sake of
this economy, and for the sake of national security, Congress
needs to pass an energy plan and get it to my desk as soon as
possible, so we can become less reliant on foreign sources of
energy," Bush said.

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