House Approves Energy Bill

The House approved an energy bill Thursday that will provide billions of dollars in tax breaks to boost domestic energy production, over the objections of lawmakers who called the measure a costly giveaway to the energy industry.
The Republican-controlled House easily passed the bill on a 249-183 vote, despite fights over drilling in the Alaskan wilderness and whether to protect the oil industry from lawsuits over the fuel additive MTBE, which has contaminated drinking water in states from California to Maine.
The bill increases the chances that oil companies will be allowed to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The Senate, which had previously blocked Arctic drilling, voted narrowly last month for a budget resolution that would allow the Bush administration to begin selling oil and gas leases in the refuge.
But the MTBE liability provision and the cost of the subsidies could become major sticking points when the Senate takes up the energy bill next month. The House has passed an energy bill for four straight years, only to see the measure fail in the Senate.