Washington ? House and Senate conferees approved late Monday a massive energy bill that includes $23 billion in tax incentives, clearing the way for the legislation’s final congressional approval.

The House could take up the measure, a top priority for President Bush, as early as today.

The conferees rejected dozens of amendments, most of them brought by Democrats, as they left the Republican-crafted bill — the product of weeks of closed-door negotiations — largely intact.

House negotiators passed it by voice vote, followed by approval from the Senate side by a vote of 8-5. The seven GOP senators were joined by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., in support of the bill.

Two-thirds of the $23 billion in tax breaks in the bill would go to the oil, gas and coal industries, prompting Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to label it “a hodgepodge of subsidies for the politically well-connected.”

Congressional estimates released Monday put the cost of the total package, the first overhaul of the nation’s energy priorities in a decade, at $32 billion over 10 years, including about $9 billion for nontax measures and revenue losses.

Among the bill’s major provisions:

• Tax incentives total $14.5 billion for oil, natural gas and coal industries.
• More than $5.2 billion in tax credits and other tax benefits over 10 years for developing renewable energy sources, including tax breaks for corn-based ethanol.
• Doubled use of ethanol in gasoline, a boon to farmers and widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats.
• Federal rules and standards for high-voltage power lines to lessen the likelihood of cascading power failures like the one that produced last August’s blackout from Michigan to New York and into Canada.
• A $1.8 billion research project to develop clean coal technology and tax benefits for a new generation of nuclear power plants to ensure diversity in energy sources for electricity production.
• Provisions to speed up permits and ease environmental rules to develop of oil and gas resources on federal land.

“We provide billions of dollars in dozens of ways to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chief of the House negotiators, said.