US senate passes amended energy bill

The US senate passed a watered-down version of President Bush’s flagship energy bill on April 25, including $14 billion in tax breaks and a boost for the use of ethanol in fuel. But the bill rejected a proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve Refuge (ANWR) in what was widely seen in the industry as a snub to Bush’s energy plans.

Key elements of the senate bill include a provision to give billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees to build a pipeline to transport