Energy speculation bill fails to advance

The Senate failed to advance legislation targeting oil speculators after Republicans and Democrats remained at an impasse on adding an expansion of offshore drilling to the bill.

The chamber voted 50-43 — well short of the 60 votes needed to limit debate on the measure that would have addressed manipulation in the oil futures markets, primarily by adding more regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Democrats had said the bill was the logical first step towards solving high gas prices since speculation was a large part of the problem.

{mosads}GOP senators wanted to add language that would expand offshore drilling and pledged to block floor action unless they received a chance to amend the Democratic bill. Democratic leaders said they wanted to limit amendments for practical reasons — the chamber expects to adjourn in August — and because Republicans’ real goal was to protect oil companies.

“Let’s strip it all away and say what this is about: They believe they have a winning hand,” said Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). “They believe ‘Drill now’ is the winning message to take into November. They want that message to continue to be hammered away… Of course, at the end of the day, nothing happens under that strategy.”

Durbin said there remains only faint hope for a breakthrough deal in the Senate’s last week before lawmakers adjourn for August.

“There’s always a chance, but it hasn’t been very encouraging,” Durbin said. “We couldn’t even get a deal on votes this weekend.”

GOP leaders have pledged to block movement onto any other issues besides energy.

“The Republicans just voted to stay on $4 gasoline until we come up with a solution,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) “The point is to try to stay on it and see if we can make some substantial progress on finding more oil and gas and using less oil and gas, which is the way you lower price if you believe in the law of supply and demand.”

The chamber is expected to be in session Saturday for a final vote on housing legislation, followed by an attempt to move to low-income heating assistance legislation. The housing bill is expected to pass — the White House has reversed itself to support it — but progress on anything else is uncertain.

Democrats had privately expected Friday’s cloture vote to fail, setting up a natural political path to blame Republicans for blocking a potential partial solution to the gas-cost crisis.