Various groups criticized an energy bill Democrats were crafting as party leaders worked to hold their caucus together on issues on which regional concerns sometimes outweigh party loyalties.

Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), a group of business executives and retired military officials, has been a champion of the push by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others to increase gas mileage standards as a way to cut the United States’ dependence on foreign oil.

The utility group Edison Electric Institute (EEI), meanwhile, took aim at what was becoming a particularly controversial element of the package: the Renewable Portfolio Standard, which is an effort to require utilities to get more of their electricity from renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal and biomass sources.

“While the energy bill reportedly includes a number of laudable energy efficiency programs and other measures, we strongly oppose the RPS because it will significantly increase electricity prices for consumers, hurt the U.S. economy, and drive additional U.S. jobs overseas to countries where energy is comparatively less expensive,” EEI President Thomas Kuhn wrote members.

Democrats were set to discuss the bill in a caucus meeting Tuesday night. Tax writers said they reached agreement on a $21 billion package to encourage renewable fuel development. Much of the bill would be paid by repealing certain tax breaks oil and gas producers now receive.

The American Petroleum Institute, which represents major integrated oil companies, called the tax package “counterproductive.”