20 Jan 2004 23:57:41 GMT
By Chris Baltimore and Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The head Senate Republican negotiator of a broad energy bill said on Tuesday he would support reducing the $30 billion price tag of stalled energy legislation and remove lawsuit liability waivers for oil companies to win passage.

But Pete Domenici of New Mexico said he would oppose splitting the
legislation apart to pass as stand alone measures, or add to other bills
popular energy provisions like increasing corn-blended ethanol production
and shoring up the reliability of the nation's power grid.

"I'm going to resist with all that I can muster the disassembling of this
(energy) bill in a manner that does not assure us of getting most of the
bill passed," Domenici told Reuters in an interview.

The Republican leadership and the White House have so far been unable to
find enough votes to prevent a filibuster in the Senate of the energy bill.

President George W. Bush will call on Congress to take prompt action on the
bill this year in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Domenici
said.

A coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans blocked a final vote on
the legislation last month, opposing language in the bill that would protect
oil companies that make the water polluting gasoline additive MTBE from
defective product lawsuits.

The House of Representatives already passed the energy bill.

Speaking from his Capitol Hill office, Domenici said the game plan for
winning passage of legislation has not been decided and final action on the
bill is not expected until sometime in March at the earliest.

Taking out the controversial MTBE lawsuit protection provisions and shaving
the cost of the bill could allow the legislation to clear Congress,
according to Domenici.

"I think that MTBE plus some cost measure are probably combined to what most people are talking about," Domenici said.

Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle has said he could deliver up to six
Democratic votes in favor of the bill if the MTBE language was eliminated,
but Domenici said Daschle has not provided him with the names of those
lawmakers.

Dropping the MTBE provision would require the altered energy package to be
tacked on to other legislation likely to easily pass in both the Senate and
House, such as the massive highway spending bill, Domenici said.