Amid tight vote counts, partisan squabbling and a veto threat from President Bush, House Democrats plan to vote on controversial energy legislation Saturday, a top priority within the caucus.

“We’re ready to go,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The House Rules Committee approved, 9-0, a rule governing an energy tax package and the underlying energy bill late Friday, as GOP panel members boycotted the meeting in response to a controversy over passage of the 2008 Agriculture spending bill (HR 3161).

Listing a number of occasions when a GOP-led panel did the same thing to Democrats in the past, panel Chairwoman Louise M. Slaughter, D-N.Y., said she issued four notices in an attempt to involve Republicans. Nonetheless, the decision to advance without GOP involvement could further fuel rancor during floor debate on the energy legislation.

Democrats moved forward with their energy tax bill (HR 2776) despite concerns from oil-state Democrats upset about treatment of the oil and gas industry. The $16.1 billion package would raise taxes on the oil and gas industry and redirect the proceeds to tax breaks for renewable energy sources; no amendments to the tax portion will be considered Saturday.

The rule approved Friday allows 23 amendments to the underlying energy bill (HR 3221), including one by Tom Udall, D-N.M., to require electric utilities to produce 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020. That has proven to be the biggest dispute on the bill, which would promote energy efficiency, new technologies and tighter regulation.

House leaders expect the debate to last 10 hours. Lawmakers will debate the underlying energy bill first and then move to the tax bill. Republicans will have one motion to recommit on each measure.

Pelosi said her discussions with Democrats focused on Udall’s renewable electricity amendment. She talked at length to conservative Democrat Allen Boyd of Florida.

Boyd said he has not decided how he would vote on the renewable electricity standard. Asked whether he thinks Pelosi has enough votes to win adoption of the amendment, Boyd said: “She didn’t tell me that, but she’s out lobbying pretty hard.”

Another potential hurdle is opposition from Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., who, like Boyd, is concerned that Southern states may not have sufficient wind power to meet the standard, unless agricultural waste and other sources are allowed.

Udall had initially proposed a standard of 20 percent by 2020, but softened that to 15 percent earlier this week. His latest proposal would allow utilities to meet more than a quarter of the requirement through energy efficiency.

Udall insists Democrats have the majority of votes needed to adopt the amendment, suggesting that the discussions are intended to build further support and ensure a strong vote on the underlying bill.

Meanwhile, the White House echoed the concerns of oil-state Democrats and House Republicans about the measures in the latest veto threat.

“The combination of these two bills will result in less domestic oil and gas production, higher taxes to disadvantage a single targeted industry, and duplicative energy efficiency and (research and development) efforts that are largely under way already,” the White House said in its policy statement on the two bills.

At times this week, the tax package has appeared to be in more jeopardy than the broader bill because of the potential defection of oil-state Democrats concerned about raising taxes on an industry that provides jobs in their districts. Meanwhile, Republicans have been trying to woo 36 members of their party who voted for a narrower energy bill (HR 6) in January.

Jim McCrery of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said he expected a substantial number of those 36 GOP members to vote against the tax package, though he did not think he would have a majority.

McCrery has proposed an alternate $5 billion package that would provide shorter extensions of many of the same tax credits the main bill includes and exclude some of the more controversial tax increases on the energy industry.

Alan K. Ota contributed to this story.

First posted Aug. 3, 2007 11:58 a.m.