WASHINGTON -- Senate and House conferees seemed headed for agreement on an energy bill sometime next month, resolving the first of many contentious issues in the package Thursday by renewing liability limits for nuclear-power plant accidents.
The agreement extends and modifies the Price-Anderson Act, a federal insurance program of sorts for the nuclear-power industry, to cover an expected new generation of smaller, modular nuclear plants. The act, first passed in 1957, was extended by the conference for an additional 15 years. It limits private plant-owner liability for nuclear accidents to a total of $9.3 billion.
House Republicans defeated attempts by Democrats to impose tougher security standards on nuclear-power plants and the transportation of radioactive materials. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Bill Tauzin (R.,La.) said that while some of the measures had been approved by the House, they were rejected by Senate conferees as being "beyond the scope" of the energy bill.
Issues still looming before the conference committee include a substantial increase in federal subsidies for ethanol as a gasoline additive, which has been passed by the Senate, and the possibility of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has been approved by the House.
The conferees appeared to be headed toward a minimal improvement in automobile and truck-fleet efficiency standards, a House provision that would raise it by about one mile per gallon. Noting that at the same time President Bush was making his case before the U.N. for attacking Iraq, Alys Campaigne, legislative director for the National Resources Defense Council, complained of a "disconnect between what's happening with our foreign policy and what's not happening with regard to reducing our dependence on oil."
On less controversial fronts, the conferees adopted a compromise that would require natural-gas pipeline operators to inspect pipelines for safety defects every 10 years. The legislation, drawn up after a series of pipeline explosions, requires older and more problematic pipelines to be inspected within the first five years, with inspections for other pipelines following that. Pipeline owners are then required to report the results to the Department of Transportation.
The lawmakers approved a measure that would give Indian tribes more control over development of their oil, coal, gas and wind-power resources. Currently, the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs oversees most steps in energy development on reservations.
The conference also approved federal-loan guarantees to support the construction of a gas-pipeline system that would move natural gas from Alaska's North Slope through Canada to the lower 48 states.
The measure prohibits federal approval for an alternative being proposed by Canada, which would connect the U.S. output on the North Slope to nearby Canadian gas fields by routing the pipeline under the Beaufort Sea. Oil companies that would build the pipeline are still studying whether either route would be economically feasible.
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