Senior Senate Dem signals that his colleagues may skip formal energy talks

Senate Democratic leaders will attempt this week to launch a bicameral conference committee on energy legislation, but a senior Senate Democrat is signaling that the formal talks likely will be skipped.
   
When asked how Democrats would overcome procedural hurdles to complete an energy bill this year, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he expects it to be done in the “same way we brought back children’s health and the same way we’ll probably do a Medicare bill — the same general process.”
   
{mosads}He clarified to say that means that Democrats likely would skip the formal bicameral talks “because Republicans will not let us conference.” Republicans deny they are blocking a conference from taking place.
   
The process Baucus hinted at would mirror the “ping-pong” strategy Democrats used to complete work on a broad children’s health insurance bill, a Food and Drug Administration overhaul bill and an ethics bill. Under that strategy, compromise bills are negotiated behind the scenes — mainly by senior House and Senate Democrats — and passed on to each chamber until they are approved and sent to the president’s desk.
   
Still, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Tuesday told reporters he would attempt this week to formally attempt to move to a House-Senate conference committee on energy legislation. He said he planned to talk about the issue later Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and had discussed strategy with Democrats earlier in the day.
   
“I had a conversation a few minutes ago with [Washington Democratic Sen.] Maria Cantwell …  and she has said that she’s done a survey of Republican senators and they want to go to conference on this,” Reid said.
   
When asked whether he would be open to skipping formal talks, he later said, “I think we need to have a conference.”
   
Skipping a conference could infuriate Republicans, who fear they would be shut out of the process.
   
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Republicans would be opposed to doing an end-run around a conference.
   
“It produces a pretty mixed-up bill,” Domenici said of the ping-pong strategy.
   
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said he wasn’t aware of any Republicans vowing to block a conference on energy. “I would think I would know about that,” Lott said. “I think the problem is that Democrats can’t figure out what to do because the two bills are absolutely diametrically opposed.”
   
The Senate’s energy bill passed in June by a 65–27 vote; the House passed its version in August, 241–172.
   
The bills differ widely, with the Senate’s calling for a fuel-efficiency increase for automobiles, and the House’s including measures that would ramp up renewable fuel use in electricity production and create new tax incentives for biofuels.
   
Not only are the underlying requirements of the bill different, but they also have different bill numbers — a procedural snafu that could require floor time to resolve and allow opponents to hold up a conference.