Senate Chiefs Plan to Resist Compromise on Energy Bill

[Judi Lynn]

Senate Chiefs Plan to Resist Compromise on Energy Bill

By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: July 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 27 — The prospects for legislation that would expand energy production in the nation’s coastal waters grew more uncertain on Thursday as Senate leaders said they would resist compromises in negotiations with the House.

In separate messages to Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, whose support for the Senate bill is based on provisions that bar drilling along the western coast of his state, Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, and his Democratic counterpart, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, said they would oppose the weaker protections for Florida included in the drilling bill that the House passed last month.

Mr. Frist, who has already blocked efforts to amend the bill on the Senate floor, told Mr. Nelson in an e-mail message that he “would not bring back a bill before the Senate that does not provide adequate protections” for Florida.

In a letter, Mr. Reid went further, saying that if the House did not accept the Senate bill without modification, he would join Mr. Nelson and other senators “and produce the votes to sustain a filibuster to prevent the passage of the bill” after negotiations with the House.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/washington/28energy.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin