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Conferees on H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, began meeting July 14, 2005, and are predicting that the conference will be completed July 25. The Senate passed its version of the bill June 28, and the House passed its version April 21. The Senate and House bills are similar, but major differences exist, including the following areas: ethanol and methyl tertiary-butyl ether, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, electricity restructuring, renewable energy, climate change, tax provisions, outer continental shelf, and the siting of LNG terminals

Conferees on H.R. 6, the Energy Policy Act of 2005, began meeting July 14, 2005, and are predicting that the conference will be completed July 25. The Senate passed its version of the bill June 28, and the House passed its version April 21. The Senate and House bills are similar, but major differences exist, including the following areas: ethanol and methyl tertiary-butyl ether, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, electricity restructuring, renewable energy, climate change, tax provisions, outer continental shelf, and the siting of LNG terminals

Under provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA, P.L. 107-16), the estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax are scheduled to be repealed effective January 1, 2010. But the estate tax repeal, and all other provisions of EGTRRA, are scheduled to sunset December 31, 2010. If the sunset provision is not repealed, or the law is not otherwise changed beforehand, in 2011 estate and gift tax law will return to what it would have been had EGTRRA never been enacted. The unified estate and gift taxes will be reinstated with an exclusion amount of $1 million. The maximum tax rate will revert to 55%.

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