WASHINGTON - As drivers face near-record gasoline prices, the Senate took up an energy bill Tuesday that would raise auto fuel economy standards for the first time in nearly 20 years and make price gouging by the oil industry a federal crime.

House and Senate Democratic leaders said they want broad energy legislation passed before the Fourth of July congressional recess, hoping to dampen growing voter anger about paying more than $3 a gallon at gas pumps across the nation.

The Senate bill calls on automakers to boost fuel economy to a fleet average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, about a 40 percent increase over what new cars and less fuel efficient SUVs and pickup trucks are required to attain today. The standard for cars, 27.5 mpg, was last increased 18 years ago. SUVS and small trucks must achieve a fleet average of 22.2 mpg.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the bill would help reduce the country's reliance on oil -- an addiction that consumes about 21 million barrels a day, nearly two-thirds of it imported.

The White House issued a statement opposing many of the bill's most critical parts, including the mandatory increase in automobile fuel economy. It also said that President Bush would likely veto the legislation if it contained price-gouging language.

Reid has called the auto fuel efficiency measure the energy package's most contentious issue.

Executives of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler lobbied Senate leaders last week arguing that the bill's requirements may not be achievable. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is working on a more modest fuel economy proposal that he says automakers think they can meet.

"The handwriting has been on the wall for a long time," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a longtime advocate for more stringent auto fuel economy requirements. She said numerous studies have shown that manufacturers can meet auto fuel efficiency targets that are more stringent than those being considered by the Senate.

The Senate bill, which faces many hurdles over the next two weeks, would sharply ramp up the use of ethanol as a substitute for gasoline, requiring production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2022, five times today's production.

Though the additional ethanol initially would come from corn, eventually nearly two-thirds of it is expected to be produced from prairie grasses, wood chips and other cellulosic sources.

Many of the bill's provisions have bipartisan support, but Republicans want more, especially more domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, as well as expansion of nuclear power.

The Democratic bill "doesn't do anything to address expanding domestic production, and it won't do a single solitary thing to reduce gas prices," said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

However, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said that a price-gouging provision that she advocates might reduce the prospects of future price jumps.

It would give the Federal Trade Commission broader authority to investigate possible wholesale oil market manipulation -- from the legitimacy of refinery shutdowns to whether gasoline is being exported to limit domestic supplies.

For the first time, it would be a federal crime to charge "unconscionably excessive" prices for petroleum products at the wholesale or retail level. Critics of the provisions, including the Bush administration, said the measure amounts to price regulation and could lead to supply shortages.

"The federal government has all the legal tools necessary to address price gouging," a White House statement said.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Republicans -- with support from some Democrats -- will renew the drive to open new areas of coastal waters, especially the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and central Atlantic region, to oil and gas development.

One proposal that would give states an ability to get out from under a federal ban on offshore oil and gas development has bipartisan support, but is strongly opposed by a number of senators from coastal states.

To reinforce lawmakers' concerns about reliance on imported oil, the Senate late Tuesday added a provision to the bill that requires the president to establish policies that cut petroleum use by 10 million barrels a day by 2031. Opponents of the bill said it's not needed because other provisions in the bill would accomplish reductions in oil demand.

Another highly contentious issue that senators will debate is whether to require utilities to use more renewable fuels to produce electricity.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., intends to propose a national requirement that 15 percent of a utility's power come from renewables such as wind and solar power. Such a requirement is strongly opposed by utilities in the Southeast, where there are few resources for wind power and heavy reliance on coal.