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E&E News: Some sense a bad sequel in the making. Others see a rejuvenated party trying to revise a stale plot line. Whatever your position, one thing is clear: This summer, the House of Representatives will feature a major floor fight on energy policy.

That’s because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a clear directive soon after Democrats took control of Congress this year, promising a comprehensive energy and climate change bill on the House floor by the Fourth of July.

By one count, Pelosi’s pledge has resulted in more than 40 committee hearings since January on climate and energy, on topics ranging from fuel economy to liquefying coal to mandating a first-ever U.S. trading market for carbon. Those hearings have subsequently produced too many bills to count, and the certainty of markup after markup in the weeks to come.

But with five legislative work weeks to go before that deadline, House Democrats are still left with the task of cobbling together a bill from as many as 11 committees. With that in mind, the following provides a status report on each committee likely to have a hand in sculpting the bill.

As for the deadline itself, a House Democratic aide close to the process said the package will not arrive on the House floor before the July Fourth recess. The idea is to announce the package before the recess and hold the debate after, the aide explained.

Across the aisle, some skeptical Republicans think the whole concept sounds a bit familiar. They insist the Democratic Party is spinning its way through a hot topic (climate change) to discuss the same old set of issues (energy supply and demand).

“We did the same thing last Fourth of July,” said Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), ranking member of the House Science Energy and Environment Subcommittee. “In fact, we called it Energy Independence Day. Nancy Pelosi stole the idea from me.

“Just kidding,” he added, after a pause.

For her part, Pelosi has maintained her goal is to “raise the visibility” of global warming and incite change by moving a different kind of energy bill. Whether or not her approach is a success remains to be seen.

Here’s the update:

Energy and Commerce

A major component of the legislation is expected to come from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) as primary architect. The chairman of the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee has over the past several weeks clarified which issues he wants to address on the floor.

Much of this committee’s contribution will come into focus next week, when the subcommittee holds a hearing on draft legislation addressing energy efficiency, coal-to-liquids fuels, loan guarantees for advanced technologies and creating a “smart” power grid. A markup of this bill is expected after the Memorial Day recess.

Boucher also wants to advance legislation that provides federal price guarantees for up to six commercial-scale coal-to-liquids plants. The plan would provide payments to plant operators if oil prices fall low enough to undercut the fuels. The bill would also force CTL refineries that receive federal price supports to install controls on carbon dioxide emissions (E&E Daily, May 9).

In recent weeks, Boucher has also said he wants the committee to improve the Energy Department’s program for providing federal loan guarantees to advanced, low-emission energy facilities. Critics say it is taking the Energy Department too long to get the program off the ground and have questioned whether DOE will provide loans as large as the 2005 Energy Policy Act intended.

Boucher has also expressed interest in helping to improve DOE’s slow-moving appliance efficiency standards program.

Down the road, the committee is expected to craft language significantly expanding the mandate for alternative transportation fuels. The fuels language will not be part of next week’s hearing, but Boucher has previously said it will make the cut into the Democrats’ summer energy package.

Though no draft fuels bill has been released by the committee, Boucher has indicated the panel will likely move something that resembles the 35 billion gallon mandate proposed by President Bush. It remains to be seen whether the bill will have specific mandates for the use of cellulosic ethanol or CTL.

The committee may also take action on price gouging legislation, though it remains unclear whether it will be part of the broader energy package. House Democratic leaders are currently exploring options for moving a standalone price gouging bill — sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) — before the Memorial Day recess. Even so, Stupak admits price gouging language may need to end up in the broader bill to get it past the president’s desk.

As for corporate average fuel economy, the House has a giant obstacle to overcome: the chairman of the full Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). Despite significant movement on fuel economy in the Senate, Pelosi says she will address the issue at a later date and not as part of the summer energy package.

Natural Resources

The House Natural Resources Committee is looking at carbon sequestration and ocean issues for its slice of the larger bill.

A full committee hearing on Chairman Nick Rahall’s (D-W.Va.) H.R. 2337 is scheduled for May 23. A markup is tentatively scheduled for June 6, according to the committee.

The bill adapts legislation from House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) to authorize the U.S. Geological Survey to create a national inventory of potential locations to store carbon dioxide. It would also require the Interior Department to develop a regulatory framework for conducting geological carbon sequestration activities on federal lands.

Interior would also be charged with developing a national program to mitigate the effects of climate change on wildlife populations, and spearhead new federal research to address the issue.

The bill would formally establish a national, integrated coastal observation system, one of the key recommendations made by the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative, which has been working to highlight the link between warming, increasingly acidic oceans and rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Additional provisions would establish an intra-agency panel to address the effects of warming on federal lands, oceans and federal water infrastructure, and direct the Commerce Department to report every five years on climate change’s projected effects on ocean and coastal ecosystems and coastal communities (E&E Daily, May 17).

Oversight and Government Reform

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has tentative plans to contribute one bill, which Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) unveiled yesterday.

The “Carbon-Neutral Government Act” would force federal agencies to freeze their greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 and achieve zero net emissions by 2050.

In addition to the emissions targets for federal agencies, the bill also would require the government to purchase only light- and medium-duty passenger vehicles that comply with tailpipe emissions standards set by a California law at the center of the Supreme Court’s recent Massachusetts v. EPA decision.

The bill would also encourage agencies to purchase products certified by EPA’s Energy Star program and set new energy efficiency standards for federal buildings designed to reduce fossil-fuel use.

The bill is still a discussion draft, and the committee has not determined when it will mark the bill up, Waxman said yesterday in an interview.

Asked whether his panel might contribute other legislation to the Fourth of July effort, Waxman said, “This is the only bill we have right now.”

Science and Technology

The House Science and Technology Committee has a wide variety of legislation now on track for the July Fourth deadline, centered on efforts to improve energy efficiency and federal research.

Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) announced plans this week to offer a package of four to five bills dealing with green buildings and energy efficiency, which he has not yet introduced.

Other bills Democratic aides have said are likely to be part of the committee’s contribution are:

• H.R. 906, which would overhaul federal climate research to provide more useful information for local and state governments and others.

• H.R. 364, which would create an Energy Department research agency aimed at spurring technology breakthroughs. The committee has tentative plans to mark the bill up next week.

• H.R. 632, which would authorize $50 million over the next decade for various awards for hydrogen technology development, with the hope that such an incentive would lead to breakthroughs to help make the technology commercially viable.

Gordon has noticed a markup for Wednesday but offered no details on the legislation on the docket. A likely candidate is the ARPA-E bill that moved out of subcommittee earlier this month.

“We’re hoping the H-prize moves at the same time,” said Inglis (R-S.C.), referring to a bill he is cosponsoring that would authorize $50 million over the next decade for various awards for hydrogen technology development.

Spokeswoman Alisha Prather said a number of other energy-related research bills will be marked up in June.

Gordon will not assert jurisdiction over carbon capture and sequestration legislation moving in the Natural Resources Committee.

Foreign Affairs Committee

Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, caught many off guard earlier this week when he announced plans to mark up legislation mandating U.S. participation in international negotiations on a new global warming treaty.

Lantos revealed his strategy on the eve of his committee’s first hearing on the climate issue — a fact that drove his Republican counterpart, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), to ask for more time before moving the legislation.

But under orders from Pelosi to produce a bill, Lantos rejected Ros-Lehtinen’s request and the markup is scheduled for Wednesday.

Details of the Lantos bill — the “International Climate Cooperation Re-Engagement Act of 2007″ — remain under wraps short of broad statements the chairman made at this week’s hearing.

For example, Lantos said his bill would require three key components for a future international agreement: a “viable” target for stabilizing carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere; binding emissions-reduction targets; and flexible mechanisms such as carbon trading to make the agreement economically workable.

Lantos also said the legislation sets up a new climate change office at the State Department, and it also tries to stimulate use of new energy technology in emerging economies with an allocation of $5 billion over five years for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Lantos bill also would establish an International Clean Energy Foundation — a semiautonomous institution that would tie together efforts of NGOs, private companies and foreign governments.

Lantos’ legislation does not match up with a “Sense of the Senate” resolution from Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). That plan is poised for consideration on the Senate floor after the Memorial Day recess as part of a broader energy package.

Transportation and Infrastructure

The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee has also promised to offer language for the summer package, but so far committee leaders have been vague about what items they will try to move.

T&I Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) has yet to set a date for the markup of any bill.

“We have broad concepts we’re flushing out,” he said earlier this week. “I want pragmatic things that are doable.

“Much of what we need to do, we can do, is within reach,” he added.

Oberstar’s committee has held two hearings on climate change and energy independence. In an interview, he launched first into his concern about how to lower fuel consumption for the Government Services Administration’s fleet of 170,000 federal vehicles. And he also expressed interest in cutting down on the federal government’s electricity bill of $5.8 billion per year.

Oberstar said he hoped to get a pilot project started at the Energy Department to equip its Washington headquarters with photovoltaic lights. He then wants to fit the rest of the federal government.

He also questioned why the Army Corps of Engineers has not maintained an inventory of low-head hydroelectric power prospects. At a low-head hydroplant, water falls only a few feet and may not necessarily involve a dam or weir.

On transportation, Oberstar said his main focus was to restore a Bush budget cut of $300 million to transit programs and to potentially provide additional incentives for the development of transit programs that can cut down on petroleum uses.

Ways and Means

The committee is planning to contribute legislation that addresses energy tax incentives, but little information beyond that has been made available.

Several industries are pushing lawmakers to extend their incentives or create new ones. Renewable energy advocates are seeking a long-term extension of wind power production tax credits that expire at the end of next year. And the solar industry wants to see investment tax credits for residential and commercial solar installations extended, as well.

The Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures recently invited proposals from lawmakers on their energy tax policy plans and received a wide range of responses.

They received proposals addressing expanded or new incentives for technologies including: small wind systems, coal-to-liquid fuels and facilities, plug-in hybrid vehicles, fuel cell technologies, energy efficient buildings, and many others. A markup has not been scheduled but is likely to occur in June, an aide said.

Small Business

The Small Business Committee expects to contribute legislation to “adapt existing SBA programs to help small businesses cope with high energy costs, become more energy efficient, and develop energy efficient products,” a Democratic spokesperson said.

Appropriations

The House Appropriations Committee does not plan any specific climate or energy-related legislation for Pelosi’s Fourth of July package. Instead, the powerful panel led by Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) will address the issues through regular order as it begins to move 13 annual fiscal 2008 spending bills.

Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, has said he will tack a global warming resolution onto his spending bill for U.S. EPA and the Interior Department. Dicks tried to move the same language last year putting lawmakers on record in support of climate change science and a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Dicks and other Democratic subcommittee members have also appeared eager to boost climate research funds for the U.S. Geological Survey and land management agencies. The Democrats tipped their hand during a hearing in April where Interior Department officials testified that climate change could dramatically reshape America’s public lands and the government’s ability to manage them as seas rise, species are threatened with extinction and wildfire threats increase.

Spending bills begin moving today with a markup in the House Homeland Security Subcommittee. Obey will unveil all-important 302(b) allocations for the other bills at the first full committee markup, though that date hasn’t been scheduled yet.

An Obey spokeswoman said Democrats expect to consider the appropriations legislation throughout the summer, but no firm schedule has been completed for specific bills.

Agriculture

Energy proposals from the House Agriculture Committee will all be directed to the new farm bill, rather than the energy/climate package, according to committee aides. The farm bill will be “separate but complementary” to the Pelosi effort, an aide said.

Congress reauthorizes the farm bill every five years, and this year’s effort is expected to include new investment in biofuels. Biofuels and cellulosic ethanol in particular have been major topics of interest for Agriculture Committee members at committee hearings this year.

The farm bill will have a “robust multibillion dollar energy title,” House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said yesterday. Key focus areas will be in helping get cellulosic ethanol development off the ground and supporting biodiesel.

The current farm bill includes grants and loans for farmers who want to improve energy efficiency on their farm, install wind turbines or other renewable energy projects. Peterson and other Agriculture Committee members are looking to include research programs for cellulosic feedstocks, a large pilot project for cellulosic ethanol across the country and loan guarantees for cellulosic plants.

The committee’s work is likely to be in place as the energy/climate package is on the move. Peterson plans to move the bill out of committee by the July Fourth recess.

Judiciary

The House Judiciary Committee moved its first piece of energy legislation this week, but it is not expected to contribute to the summer energy package (see related story).

The panel yesterday approved a bill that attempts to declare illegal the practice of foreign nations acting together to limit the production of petroleum products or to set the price of petroleum products. It would allow the federal government to sue those nations under U.S. antitrust laws.

That bill is not expected to be part of the summer energy package.

House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (D-Mich.) has said his committee will hold additional hearings relating to allegations of antitrust practices by the major oil companies, but committee staff say no new legislation is on the horizon.

Darren Samuelsohn, Dan Berman, Ben Geman, Lauren Morello, Allison Winter and Alex Kaplun contributed.

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