Apparently, even $80 oil is not strong enough to break through the partisan politics currently playing out in Washington. Despite a full-court press by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to complete a comprehensive energy bill in July before the annual Congressional summer recess, it did not happen. At press time, more than half-way through September, Congress was back in session. But the energy industry still had no clue as to when-or even whether-the two chambers of Congress will meet on energy, name their conferees and start to resolve the glaring differences between HR 2337 passed by the House and HR 6 passed by the Senate. But to add insult to injury, the process requires that, prior to naming conferees, the two bills each possess the same tracking number. This has led to a back-and-forth discussion between the leadership of each chamber as to which one will renumber its respective energy bill. The Senate argues that its procedural rules would re-open its entire energy bill to amendment, which the House rules could prevent. In addition to these thorny parliamentary difficulties, more than 11 committees in the House had parts of its bill, so it would be easy to see a House Conference Committee with more than 50 members of Congress-unwieldy at best. For more on this, see the October issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.

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