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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jonggua who wrote (22215)	5/6/2003 7:03:11 PM
From: russwinter	Respond to of 206325

This should help sustain the energy bull market!! From the "head in the sand" school of energy policy. US senate keeps Alaska drilling out of energy bill Reuters, 05.06.03, 5:29 PM ET By Tom Doggett and Chris Baltimore WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the Senate Energy Committee said Tuesday Republicans lack the votes to block opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, so the proposal will not be in a pending energy bill. Drilling in ANWR is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's national energy plan because the White House believes the refuge's potential 16 billion barrels of crude would help reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. However, Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, head of the energy panel, said drilling supporters do not have the 60 votes needed to stop a Senate filibuster of the controversial ANWR plan. "I think that is a shame, but I also am not about to sacrifice a broader energy policy over that single, though important issue," Domenici said as the Senate began debating the energy bill. The House of Representatives passed its energy bill in April with a provision to allow ANWR drilling. The Senate voted earlier this year against including ANWR drilling language in the federal budget. Senate leadership has set aside several days each week through early June to debate the energy bill, but lawmakers could pass it by the end of May, Senate staffers said. Debate will focus on a handful of controversial issues -- more ethanol use, electricity market reforms, raising vehicle mileage standards, climate change issues and requiring power generation from renewable sources like wind and solar energy. Thursday, the Senate is due to take up a proposal to double production of ethanol-blended gasoline to 5 billion gallons a year by 2012. Lawmakers are expected to offer many amendments to modify the proposal. Another controversial component of the bill to be taken up later is a rewrite of U.S. electricity grid rules to rein in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's plan to create standardized super-regional transmission networks. FERC's proposal has spurred protests from states in the South and West, which are worried power costs may rise. The Senate energy bill, in its current form, would bar FERC from finalizing its rules before July 2005 -- about two years later than the agency wants. An alternate plan filed by Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama would require Congress to approve any plan before it is implemented by FERC. However, alternative electricity proposals are not likely to have the 51 votes needed to strike the bill's existing provisions, Senate staff said.