Updated x2 : I apologize for confusion in my earlier post, which was partly incorrect.

Democrats may still add the Renewable Portfolio Standard back into the energy bill, but it is not there in the version currently circulating on the Hill, fresh from legislative counsel. A Republican source says that omission of RPS would be evidence that the Democrats actually want to pass the bill. If Pelosi adds it back in the Rules Committee, then we’re back to where we started.

The current version omits the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), the requirement that utilities produce a certain amount of their power from wind, biomass, solar, and other “renewable” sources (this does not include hydroelectric or nuclear power, the viable forms of emissions-free power). Its apparent omission is a pretty big deal. It could still be reversed, but it’s not likely from a procedural perspective. Environmentalists will be very upset if it is not included.

Would the omission of RPS be enough to get the bill passed into law? President Bush is probably not going to sign it anyway. The current version still includes all of the other bad provisions, such as the undefined “use-less-gasoline” provision (called the “oil savings program”). Higher CAFE (compulsory fuel efficiency) standards are still there, as are the higher taxes on producers and the so-called “price gouging” provisions.

As one staffer puts it to me: “This bill is a bunch of utopia.”