WASHINGTON -- Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is working the angles on a sluggish energy bill, hoping to promote a freeze on drilling along the Rocky Mountain Front in exchange for his vote, which could be critical for Republicans looking to pass a compromise version of the bill.

Lawmakers say that they will complete work on an energy bill before they go home for the year, but it remains anyone's guess what will be in it.

''We have a few more weeks, maybe more, in the session," Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., said. ''I don't know anything from day to day, but I do know we will get an energy bill."

Several deadlines have been missed and some issues that are important to Wyoming and Montana remain on the negotiating table.

The main issue holding up the bill is a Republican intra-party dispute over federal taxes on ethanol, a corn-based fuel. Lawmakers say that if the issue can be resolved the other outstanding issues could quickly be settled.

The bill is in a conference committee, in which a relatively small group of senators and House members try to hash out the differences between the Senate and House passed versions of the bill. The compromise bill is known as a conference report and must be passed by both the Senate and House and signed by the president to become law.

Both the lawmakers who are on the conference committee and their colleagues say it is unclear what the final bill will look like.

A provision that would send more than $400 million to Wyoming over the next five years and settle a long-running disagreement over the rehabilitation of abandoned coal mines and retired coal miners' healthcare benefits remains up in the air.

''It's not going to be in the bill," Domenici said, before adding, ''I think that's right."

Like Domenici, Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., is one of the lawmakers ironing out the differences between the two bills and like the New Mexican he is uncertain of the provision's fate.

''I don't know," Thomas responded when asked if the provision was in the bill. ''You know as much as I do. (Sen. Domenici) is trying to keep out everything Republicans object to."

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, D-W. Va., said he has obtained Senate Democrats' support for the provision, but like Domenici and Thomas was uncertain if it is in the bill.