DOMENICI TO USE LAST YEAR'S ENERGY BILL AS VEHICLE FOR THIS YEAR'S ENERGY PROVISIONS

PLANS TO WRITE-IN PRODUCTION, RESEARCH, DIVERSITY PROVISIONS

July 31, 2003
12:00 AM
WASHINGTON –– Senate Energy Chairman Pete V. Domenici tonight announced plans to write this year’s energy provisions into last year’s energy bill during an autumn conference on the bill. Domenici tonight celebrated the passage of H.R. 6, which is the text of last year’s senate-passed energy bill, as a victory for Senate Republicans anxious to begin work on rewriting the bill in conference. He announced plans to write into the conference report the production, diversity and research provisions contained in S. 14, the Energy Policy Act of 2003, which was crafted by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee under Domenici’s leadership. Domenici’s statement: “This deal is not how I envisioned getting an energy bill to conference. But if it gets us closer to our goal, I consider it a win. I consider it a win for a nation in desperate need of a bold and balanced energy policy that will create jobs, protect our economy and make us less dependent on foreign energy. “I look forward to chairing the conference on this bill. I promise you we will write many of this year’s energy provisions into the bill at conference. We will do more for production. We will do more for energy diversity. We will do more for research. The final bill will look more like what I produced in committee this spring than it will the bill we are passing tonight. Tonight’s bill is just a vehicle to get us to conference.”