Pressure mounts to pass US energy legislation.

WASINGTON, DC -- Determined to pass an energy bill any energy bill--before the start of its month long summer recess, the Senate put a stunning end to months of haggling over energy policy when the body voted 84-14 to put last year's omnibus energy bill back into play, abandoning Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici's (R-NM) legislation at the last minute.

More than anything, dusting off last year's failed legislation looks like a strategic move to force the bill into a House-Senate conference committee on energy this fall, where the Senate bill will have to be reconciled with House legislation passed in April. Energy legislation died last year in just such a conference committee, when the House and Senate could not come to a final agreement, an outcome lawmakers hope to reverse this year now that Republicans control both sides of the negotiating table.

One reason that Senate Republicans were dogged in their efforts to pass an energy bill may have been pressure from the Bush Administration, which hopes to avoid the appearance that it has done nothing Io address energy issues, especially when rising natural gas prices are sure to cause a public outcry this winter.

From the Democratic perspective, lawmakers apparently decided to gamble that a bill written with Democratic backing last year was a better starting point than the emerging Senate bill. The previous bill more fully addressed consumer protections, promoted renewable energy more vigorously, and addressed climate-change issues.

The House-Senate conference committee will have a lot to reconcile. One issue is that tax breaks in the Senate bill are directed more toward renewable energy sources and conservation than the larger House tax package, which allocates two-thirds of the money to fossil fuels.

Another sticking point is that the House version favors drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, while the Senate measure makes no mention of the refuge.

Republican leaders likely will try to include in a final energy bill a significant delay in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) standard market design (SMD) plan to rewrite U.S. electricity market rules, industry sources said. The Senate's Democratic-written energy bill is largely silent on the FERC's grid plan.