In a bid to break an impasse on the first major overhaul of U.S. energy policy in more than a decade, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist introduced a stripped-down bill on Thursday, which sets the stage for a vote some time after Feb. 23.

Progress came after Frist struck a deal with Minority Leader Tom Daschle to limit the number of amendments Democrats will offer to the bill.

The new bill, which would double the use of corn-distilled ethanol in gasoline, replaces a proposed $31 billion bill laden with energy industry incentives that stalled in the Senate late last year.

Republicans unveiled the text of the $14 billion, 1,242-page bill last week. It is largely similar to the previous draft they fashioned in November.

The bulk of the savings in the bill's tax breaks come from delaying their effective date by a year.

Republicans also sliced about $6.7 billion by dropping programs for energy efficiency, deep-water drilling and coastal restoration in Louisiana and other oil-producing states.

The bill retains tax incentives to boost crude oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and on federal lands, as well as federal loan guarantees to build a pipeline to carry natural gas from Alaska to the lower 48 states.

House Republicans have accused Senate party members of walking away from a compromise reached in a House-Senate bargaining session last year on lawsuits over the gasoline additive MTBE, which is said to pollute ground water.

"This was a carefully crafted deal and now they're trying to rip it up," said Frank Maisano, a lobbyist for some makers of MTBE. "You don't negotiate from a negotiated position."

Provisions in the bill that would mandate a doubling of annual use of ethanol to 5 billion gallons (19 billion litres) over the next 10 years have given much of the impetus needed to keep the bill in play thus far.

Daschle has supported the energy bill despite opposition from other Democrats because of the ethanol provisions, which would be a boost for corn growers in his home state of South Dakota. Daschle faces a tough race against former Republican Rep. John Thune for his Senate seat in the November elections.