Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU -- The House of Representatives late Wednesday passed a major energy bill with a $1,200 "resource rebate" for Alaskans, setting up what could be a tense, billion-dollar showdown with the Senate today -- the final day of the special session.

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After hours of debate, House members voted 30-7 to pass the bill, which cleared the Senate earlier in the week.

The two versions are very different, however, and unless House and Senate members can work out a deal today, the rebate and other measures to help Alaskans cope with soaring energy costs could die.

Some senators are upset the House stripped out elements such as big increases in electricity and heating subsidies, which are important for Bush legislators.

The 30-day session is scheduled to end at midnight tonight, and lawmakers will be racing the clock to reach a compromise.

"This is as wrapped around the axle as any issue I've seen in 10 years here," said Anchorage Democratic Rep. Mike Doogan, during a break in the House floor session late Wednesday.

In the afternoon, much of the bipartisan Senate leadership went public with their discontent, staging a press conference in which they demanded the House either accept the Senate version or leave at least a day for a conference committee.

Top senators including Senate President Lyda Green, R-Wasilla, and Bethel Democratic Sen. Lyman Hoffman insist the energy bill must include substantial money for home heating and electricity subsidies.

They said the House plan to simply pay Alaskans a $1,200 rebate and to suspend the state's 8-cent tax on each gallon of gasoline isn't broad enough to cover needs statewide, especially in the costly Bush where $1,200 just won't go as far.

But House members such as Rep. Kevin Meyer, R-Anchorage, are leery of expanding subsidies or creating new ones, fearing such programs could become new entitlements that would be hard to end if the state's oil-dependent financial fortunes take a dive.

Aside from the electricity and home heating provisions, the other big difference between the House and Senate versions of Senate Bill 4002 is the rebate size.

While the House favors a $1,200 rebate tacked onto Permanent Fund checks coming out this fall, the Senate passed a $500 rebate.

The $1,200 figure is what Gov. Sarah Palin originally suggested lawmakers approve. She dubbed it a resource rebate because it would be a sharing of the state's multibillion-dollar oil revenue surplus with the people.

Although Alaskans don't have to spend the rebate on fuel or heating bills, many legislators characterize it as energy relief.

Several House members said they were disappointed the energy bill didn't offer more direct energy relief to rural and other Alaskans most in need of help. Others said they were turned off by the thought of handing out free cash to affluent Alaskans during an election year.

But many of the critics nevertheless voted yes when the vote was taken well after 11 p.m.

Rep. Woodie Salmon, a Native Democrat from a tiny Interior village, might have summed up the situation best when he told his colleagues he had to vote for the $1,200 rebate or there would be no Athabascan in the Legislature -- a line that drew howls of laughter in the House chamber.

House leaders said an energy bill with only the $1,200 rebate and the motor fuel tax suspension is a much simpler approach than the Senate's plan for complex electricity and heating subsidies in addition to a rebate.

Republican House Speaker John Harris of Valdez, in a letter to Green, said the House plan matches Palin's in its simplicity and the ease with which it could be carried out.

Find Wesley Loy online at adn.com/contact/wloy or call him in Juneau at 586-1531.

What do you think about a proposed rebate? Post your comments below.

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