Fractured Republicans Hope for Deal to Pass Energy Bill [View All]

[Khephra]

Republican leaders in Congress will attempt to jump-start lagging negotiations over an energy bill at a meeting Wednesday, but to succeed they will have to bring an end to strife among members of their own party.

Republicans are united in wanting to send President Bush a comprehensive bill, after last summer's blackout in the Northeast. But they have dug in on a growing list of regional and local issues on which compromise is difficult.

The latest problem involves hints from Alaska's senators that they might not sign a House-Senate conference report unless it includes such provisions as a government-guaranteed price floor on natural gas pumped through a proposed trans-Alaska pipeline.

The Senate energy bill provides a tax credit that has the effect of supporting the wellhead price of the gas at $3.25 per thousand cubic feet. The administration opposes such anti-market mechanisms. But more to the point, so does House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), a key member of the House GOP negotiating team.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17145-2003Oct12.html