Policy & Legislation: What's Happening Now!

Talks begin on merging House, Senate energy bills

House and Senate staff began talks today about merging the chambers' energy bills -- discussions that a spokesman for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said are aimed at educating staff rather than making substantive decisions.

Bingaman has asked committee staff to begin the "walk through," but the sessions "are not to decide the fate of any provisions, but to allow Senate staff to become familiar with the background of the House bill provisions, and vice versa," spokesman Bill Wicker said.

Bingaman wants efforts to reconcile the bills to be bipartisan and has reached out to the GOP and Democratic sides of the committees with jurisdiction over the sprawling measures, Wicker said. The goal is to get through both bills by the end of next week, he said.

The first topics up for discussion are Title IV of the House bill, which addresses research and development of alternative energy and carbon sequestration, and Title IX, which contains several bioenergy programs.

But a spokesman for Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), the Senate Energy Committee's ranking member, said that to his knowledge no GOP staff from either chamber are participating.

The spokesman, Matt Letourneau, said Republicans have not received information from Democratic leaders about how the process for merging the bills will work. He cited concerns that the formal procedure for getting the chambers to a House-Senate conference will open the door to inclusion of new provisions.

"We hope to meet with them next week. We are hoping to get some assurances, even if they are just privately from Democratic leadership, about how we are proceeding," he said. "We don't intend to boycott this process. We don't intend to be uncooperative. But we think it is reasonable to want to know what the process is before we proceed."

Frank Maisano, an energy industry lobbyist, said lawmakers face a challenge in completing a final energy package this year. "It is going to be a heavy lift for them to figure out how they are going to bridge the gap between the two bills," he said. "There certainly is not a lot of time to do it, given all the political events and all the other things on the calendar. Those make the job that much more difficult."

The two chambers passed broad energy measures over the summer that differ in key respects. The Senate measure would raise auto efficiency standards and greatly expand the national renewable transportation fuels mandate. The House-passed bill would create a national renewable electricity standard -- a policy Bingaman supports but was unable to attach on the Senate floor. It also includes a package of renewable energy and efficiency tax incentives funded through higher taxes on oil companies.

House and Senate Democratic leaders have said they want to reconcile the bills this year and hope to convene a conference committee to do so.