With the US Congress having adjourned without reaching agreement on a national energy strategy, that piece of energy legislation has failed and lawmakers will have to start again from scratch when Congress reconvenes early in 2003.
Lawmakers have tried for two years to craft legislation that will boost domestic energy supplies and will encourage conservation measures. The bill prompted huge disputes over issues such as drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Republican-led House passed a bill closely tracking the energy strategy proposed by the Bush administration last year, while the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a markedly different bill that was much less friendly to domestic producers.
Lawmakers struggled for months to reach a compromise, but failed on a number of issues, many relating to renewable energy.
"Time ran out, but the need for an energy bill has not," said Alaska senator Frank Murkowski, the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy panel.
House members sent a proposal to the Senate hoping to salvage two aspects of the bill: measures to improve pipeline safety and to limit the liability of nuclear power plant operators in case of a major accident. The Senate promised to speed through the former measure, but declined to reauthorise the nuclear power plant liability cap.
Proponents remain optimistic that the legislation will have an easier passage next year, as the Republicans control all the elements of the US government.
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