BODY: WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives easily beat back efforts
Wednesday to significantly raise the fuel efficiency of sport-utility vehicles
as lawmakers moved toward approving the most sweeping energy legislation in a
decade.
The 269-160 vote on fuel
efficiency marked a victory for President Bush, who has fought efforts to tilt
the nation's energy strategy too far toward conservation. Lobbied hard by the
United Auto Workers, 86 Democrats, mostly from the industrial Midwest, joined
182 Republicans and one independent to vote down an amendment that would have
raised fuel-economy standards for SUVs from 20.7 miles per
gallon to 27.5 miles per gallon, the same standard that cars must meet.
However, a showdown still loomed over Bush's
call to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration and
drilling.
As drafted by House Republicans,
the bill also would offer $ 33.5 billion in tax breaks to encourage
conservation, oil and gas production, nuclear energy expansion and
cleaner-burning coal technologies.
Rep.
Billy Tauzin, R-La., called the legislation "a giant step forward in securing
America's energy future."
Democratic
leaders, aided by a small group of moderate Republicans, hoped to shift the
bill's focus dramatically. They wanted to ban oil exploration in the Arctic.
They also objected to new tax breaks at a time when falling tax receipts and the
ongoing tax-rebate program are pushing the government toward tapping Medicare
taxes to balance the budget.
"We're about
to have the most important environmental vote of the 107th Congress," said Rep.
Edward Markey, D-Mass., at a rally of environmentalists.
Heavy union lobbying ensured the defeat of tougher
fuel-efficiency standards for SUVs. The United Auto Workers said the measure
would cost as many as 135,000 high-paying jobs and would close 18 automobile
plants.
The outcome of the wildlife refuge
vote was unclear Wednesday evening.
Earlier this summer, environmentalists were confident they could block
energy development in the 1.5 million-acre refuge in northeast Alaska. But heavy
pressure from the White House, as well as the Teamsters union and other labor
groups, had shifted the momentum in favor of drilling.
"We feel that for the first time in a long time, we'll be
able to crack the backs of radical environmentalists," said House GOP Whip Tom
DeLay, R-Texas.
The fate of the provision
was in doubt, regardless of House action. The Democratic-controlled Senate began
drafting its own energy legislation Wednesday, a version almost certain to
exclude drilling in the wildlife refuge.
The Senate is expected to vote this fall.
John Feehery, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.,
soft-pedaled the Arctic drilling provision's importance. He said passage of any
comprehensive energy bill would be a major victory for Bush because improving
the nation's energy capacity has become a signature issue for the
administration.
Passage of the legislation
was most threatened by an issue that divided the House on regional, rather than
partisan, lines. California lawmakers sought a provision to exempt the Golden
State from clean-air regulations that mandate the use of corn-based ethanol as a
gasoline additive. Farm state representatives adamantly opposed the
amendment.
Document 576 of 803. 