Bleak energy outlook.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Unable to make progress on a new energy bill last week, the U.S. Senate did what sputtering offenses often do - it punted on fourth and 25. Desperate lawmakers passed the same measure they had approved last year when the Senate was controlled by Democrats, one that later died in conference committee with the GOP-led House.

The revived bill is a mild improvement over the measure GOP leaders were pushing, one bulging with subsidies for the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries. There is a greater focus on conservation that partially offsets the still-hefty subsidies for producers of fossil fuels. And, thankfully, there is no mention of the White House's cherished goal of opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

But the Senate bill does appallingly little to strengthen environmental protections. For example, it exempts pickup trucks from future increases in fuel-economy standards, weakens federal water standards in order to expand oil and gas exploration and development, reverses an existing policy against reprocessing nuclear fuel and contains more than $7 billion in tax breaks for the oil, coal and nuclear industries.

The Senate's maneuver - approving last year's bill under a unanimous consent rule that blocks debate on amendments on critical issues such as global warming or fuel efficiency standards for vehicles - means that the new national energy agenda will now be finalized in a joint House-Senate conference committee where Republicans control both sides of the table.

One of the few positive aspects of the Senate's move was a promise by lawmakers to vote on a plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions backed by Senators John McCain, R-Ariz., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. This bill would require industry to stabilize and then reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It would also set up innovative "cap-and-trade" market mechanisms to reduce the costs of compliance.

But the odds are heavily against passage of the McCain-Lieberman bill, especially given the Bush administration's refusal to support anything more substantive than ineffective voluntary emission reductions by industry.

Meanwhile, GOP senators are openly vowing to make changes in conference committee negotiations with the House - changes that will restore many of the obnoxious pro-industry provisions that failed in the full Senate. They include subsidies to expand nuclear power and the opening of more vulnerable public lands to oil and natural gas drilling. One observer only half-jokingly predicted that any measure that emerges from committee will be designed ``to leave no lobbyist behind.''

If the final energy bill is as deficient as the current House and Senate bills, it should be defeated on the floor, and Congress should start from scratch on a new energy plan.