Republicans unveil slimmer $14 billion energy bill

Senate Republicans on Friday formally unveiled a slimmed-down, $14 billion energy bill after cutting a deal with Democrats for a swift vote on the stalled package when lawmakers return from a week-long holiday later this month.
But the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee - who will be key to negotiations - said Senate Republicans' move to drop legal liability protection for makers of a water-polluting gasoline additive could kill the bill.
To break the impasse in the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist introduced a stripped-down bill on Thursday which cuts the bill's price tag in half and drops liability protection for MTBE makers. Frist's move set the stage for a Senate vote some time after February 23.
Progress came after Frist struck a deal with Minority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the number of amendments Democrats will offer to the bill.
The new bill, which would double the use of corn-distilled ethanol in gasoline, replaces a proposed $31 billion bill laden with energy industry incentives that stalled in the Senate late last year.
House Republicans have warned Senate party members that walking away from a compromise reached in a House-Senate bargaining session last year on lawsuits over the gasoline additive MTBE could derail progress.
"If (Senate Republicans) seriously think we're going to accept it as is, then the energy bill's dead," Rep. Joe Barton, the new head of the House Energy Committee, told Reuters. "We will never allow MTBE safe harbour for product liability to be thrown overboard."
Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, who has led efforts to rewrite the bill, urged Barton to temper his strong stance on MTBE and consider prospects for the total package.
"The White House and Congress have spent three years working on comprehensive energy legislation," Domenici said. "No one wants to see all that work lost over any one issue."
Republicans unveiled the text of the $14 billion, 1,242-page bill on Friday. It is largely similar to the previous draft they fashioned in November.
The bulk of the savings in the bill's tax breaks come from delaying their effective date by a year.
Republicans also sliced about $6.7 billion by dropping programs for energy efficiency, deep-water drilling and coastal restoration in Louisiana and other oil-producing states.
Barton said the House was more open to negotiation on Senate Republicans' desire to cut the bill's price tag to $14 billion, but insisted his chamber would have to be consulted on funding cuts.
The bill retains tax incentives to boost crude oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands, as well as federal loan guarantees to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states.