On Wednesday October 10, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced that leadership would try to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the pending energy bills without formally going to conference with the Senate (i.e. negotiations would be behind "closed doors"). One of the reasons cited for the unusual move was that Senate Republicans would not agree to a formal conference. Shortly after Pelosi's announcement, the White House sent a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) indicating its commitment to work with the Democratic-controlled Congress to "produce balanced energy legislation," and provided a framework of what the Administration would like to see in a final product to avoid a Presidential veto.
By the following Friday, October 19, Senate Republicans and Midwestern Democrats seemed to be rethinking their opposition to a formal conference. Midwestern Democrats, opposed to the increase in automobile standards, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) saying they would support a conference, while continuing to pushing for less stringent corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) changes. Senate Republicans seemed poised to do the same, but ran into some snags.
On Friday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) went to the floor to appoint conferees, but Republicans did, in fact, object. Late Tuesday (10/23), it became apparent Republican Senators where split on how to proceed. Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), the Senate Minority Whip, said he would prefer a formal conference but acknowledged that there other views within the GOP caucus. "Some people think we should not even try and go to conference, let them [Democrats] mess it up on their own, and we can probably defeat cloture or sustain a veto," he said.
Therefore, House and Senate leaders are still preceding with an informal, "non-conference conference," while the Senate Republican leadership attempts to clear Republican objection. In the meantime, staff to the House and Senate Leadership continues to work through issues and resolve differences where they can. The more controversial issues, such as CAFE and a federal Renewable Portfolio Standard, will need to wait to be decided at the Member-level.