The Senate yesterday derailed efforts to revive long-stalled energy legislation, further dimming the prospects for approval this year of a broad initiative to expand energy production, encourage conservation and streamline the nation's overburdened electricity grid.
In back-to-back votes, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass either ethanol-production incentives or a much broader, 900-page package of energy proposals as part of an unrelated bill to extend an expired ban on Internet access taxes.
It also voted to impose limits on other amendments to the Internet tax bill, effectively blocking Democrats, led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.), from trying to add a proposal to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour over the next two years.
Kennedy staffers said the senator is likely to try to attach the minimum-wage proposal to a bill aimed at curbing class-action lawsuits, which Republican leadership aides said will probably come up in early June. GOP senators plan to offer an alternative with a smaller wage increase and with tax breaks to help small businesses pay the higher wages.
The energy legislation, including a slimmed-down version of a proposed House-Senate compromise, has been bogged down in the Senate for months. Some senators said yesterday that piggybacking it onto the Internet bill represents the best opportunity that the Senate will have this year to pass significant energy legislation.
"This is our only option," said Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), who sponsored the ethanol proposal. The vote on the more comprehensive energy measure will demonstrate to the American people "whether the United States Senate wants to pass an energy bill," said Energy Committee Chairman Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), sponsor of the broader proposal.
There have already been proposals to break the legislation into pieces and to try to pass its most urgent or popular proposals, such as those dealing with electricity and ethanol. But there is also resistance to the notion of giving up, for political and substantive reasons, on a broader bill.
In yesterday's votes, Domenici's proposal won a majority of votes. But the 55 to 43 tally in favor of his amendment fell five votes short of the 60 needed to limit debate and put the initiative on track for final approval.
The proposal to add the ethanol provisions, aimed at doubling the nation's use of the fuel additive over the next decade was rejected 59 to 40 after nearly all Republicans and nine Democrats — none of them from the Corn Belt — voted against the idea.
Daschle has championed ethanol both in the Senate and in his close election battle against former House member John Thune (R) in corn-producing South Dakota. Although he lost the vote on his proposal, it enabled him to blame Republicans for its failure. And he was quick to do so, accusing GOP senators of squandering an opportunity to boost the rural American economy and "send a powerful message to the Persian Gulf oil producers who are intent on driving up American gasoline prices."
The effort to add the energy proposals to the Internet bill came as a surprise Wednesday when Daschle offered the ethanol provisions and Domenici responded with his separate bid to add the entire energy bill.
Even if the Senate had passed the broad energy bill, problems would have remained in working out a final version with the House. House Republican leaders are insisting on liability protection for producers of a fuel additive known as MTBE, which has been found to contaminate groundwater. The Senate has balked at the idea. Domenici's proposal did not include the liability provision.
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