NOW IT IS UP TO CONGRESS

How will the Administration's energy plan be carved up on the Hill, and who are the key figures who will sit in judgment on it?

THE HOUSE: Carter's staunchest congressional ally is the most powerful: Speaker Thomas ("Tip") O'Neill. From the start, O'Neill has feared that conflicting regional interests in Congress could ruin the overall plan by bargaining on individual points. Warned O'Neill: "The only way we can write a national bill is if they don't team up. If they logroll you, you're in trouble."

The threat of logrolling is increased by the fact that pieces of Carter's program will go to eight or more committees (including Ways and Means, Commerce, Banking, Interior, Science and Technology, and Public Works). To make sure the House produces a comprehensive bill, O'Neill has created yet another committee--the Ad Hoc Committee on Energy. Normally, the regular committees would send their recommendations to the floor piecemeal, but the Ad Hoc Committee will package all of the recommendations into one omnibus bill. More important, perhaps, the new committee will have the power to offer its own amendments to the basic bill, and could even go so far as to put forward an entirely new version.

Hoping to avoid parliamentary chaos, O'Neill has carefully selected the 27 Democrats on the committee from a startling total of 140 volunteers. (There are also 13 Republican members picked by House Minority Leader John Rhodes.) The roster includes chairmen of some of the committees dealing with energy, including Oregon's Al Ullman, head of Ways and Means, who is one of the few lawmakers who think that the proposal for a progressive gas tax will pass. Another key member: Interior's Mo Udall, who favors Carter's program, although he wishes it included one of his favorite goals--breaking up the oil companies. A majority of the 40 committee members will probably back the Administration's bill; less than one-fourth of the members represent oil and gas states.

The man chosen by O'Neill to hold the all-star special energy committee together is Ohio's Thomas Ludlow Ashley, 54, a loyal ally of the Speaker's and a popular, buoyant and diligent legislator. O'Neill also picked Ashley because he is an independent on energy (although he comes from Toledo, which has auto plants) and thus may be able to moderate the inevitably conflicting views. Does Ashley see the potential national disaster that Carter envisions? "Yes, I honest-to-God do," says he. Ashley plans to deliver a bill to the House floor by the end of July. He notes: "There'll be no dawdling. I have some confidence in the House. It can rise above parochialism--and it has--and can act in the national interest."

THE SENATE: Majority Leader Robert Byrd has strongly endorsed Carter's plan, but he must deal with the worries of some of the staunchest Democrats. Massachusetts' Edward Kennedy, for example, fears that the President's proposals may slip new "loopholes" for business into the tax code. Byrd's own majority whip, Alan Cranston, represents California, the largest gas-guzzling state in the Union, and Cranston has already expressed doubts about the standby gasoline tax.

On the Republican side, Minority Leader Howard Baker will be a significant adversary for Carter. Baker has already begun to rally his party around a Republican alternative to the Administration's energy bill. Baker's version, still in the making, is expected to emphasize deregulation.

Carter's energy bill must pass muster with two powerful committees in the Senate. The Finance Committee, which will handle all tax matters, is chaired by Russell Long, 55, one of the Senate's barons, and a man who vigorously represents the oil and gas industries of his state, Louisiana. So far, Long has been generally favorable, but he warns that "Carter's greatest difficulty will be with anything that puts a direct tax on the consumer--the tax on gas at the pump."

A newly created Energy Committee, chaired by Senator Henry Jackson, will have the authority to examine all the nontax aspects of the plan, such as fixing the price for natural gas, setting efficiency standards for appliances and approving solar-energy programs. Jackson, whom Carter beat badly in the primaries last year, has been fiercely independent of the Carter Administration. Still, Jackson last week issued a statement backing the "President's efforts to obtain a comprehensive energy program," although he warned that Carter's proposed gas tax "won't get anywhere." This week the industrious Jackson will begin his hearings. His lead-off witness: Energy Chief James Schlesinger.

It will be the beginning of a long ordeal. Senator Byrd has pledged to send the bill to the White House before Congress adjourns in October.

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