Capital Commerce: Fizzling energy bill set to sizzle?
The heat of summer and internal Republican politics may fire up Congress to move on an energy bill, even though efforts toward that oft-declared goal have fizzled four years in a row. Lehman Brothers analysts this week gave the legislation just a 50-50 shot at passage but noted new pressure on GOP leaders to pull it off. Politically ambitious Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist looks weakened after the GOP moderates resolved the judicial filibuster standoff, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay appears hunkered down against an onslaught of ethics charges. Meanwhile, polls show that the public thinks President Bush could be doing more about high gas prices. All three "could use a legislative victory to reassert their effectiveness as leaders of a unified GOP government," says Lehman. But they'd have to deal with those nettlesome GOP moderates; northeastern Senate Republicans won't back the bill as long as it lets oil companies off the hook for cleanup of damage done to drinking-water systems by leaks of the oil additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE).
Another spike in pump prices or a major power blackout could move warring GOP factions to negotiate. This week, drivers were hit with a 1.9 cent-per-gallon increase as they filled their tanks, and the Energy Information Administration warned that motorists may already have seen the lowest prices of the summer. And electricity demand is expected to be 6 percent higher than it was last summer, the North American Electric Reliability Council says. The utility industry council expects electricity supply to be adequate but pinpointed potential trouble spots. One location worth watching: Texas, the only part of the country where electricity supply is expected to decline this summer, as power companies in that deregulated state retire what they deem to be inefficient generation stations. Power shortages there certainly would get the attention of DeLay and other Lone Star Republicans, who happen to be the hardliners on the MTBE issue.
Senior writer Marianne Lavelle covers the energy industry for U.S. News.
advertisement
