HARRISBURG — An agreement that ended July's budget stalemate will thrust the state's energy policy into the spotlight when members of the Legislature return to the Capitol this week.

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell has made the subject a top priority, saying he wants Pennsylvania to become the "Silicon Valley" of alternative energy and pressuring lawmakers by framing the necessity in stark terms.

More homegrown energy and fuel sources are needed to stop sending American money to hostile oil-producing nations in the Middle East, he has said. And conservation can head off a heavy economic blow facing Pennsylvania in the next three years when deregulation-era rate caps that keep electricity bills artificially low disappear, according to Rendell.

The governor has even given his $850 million plan, first floated in February, a name with a familiar American ring to it: Energy Independence Fund.

Republicans have responded, proposing their own ideas on how to make energy cleaner and cheaper. With broad agreement on the worthiness of the topic, legislators and Rendell's aides say they expect debate to revolve around how to distribute incentives that spur electricity conservation, the use of cleaner fuels and the deployment of more energy-efficient technologies.

"I expect that there will be some pretty vigorous conversations about how that money will be spent," said Steve Crawford, Rendell's secretary for legislative affairs.

A few Republicans have grudgingly given Rendell credit for being on top of the issue. They also criticized his idea of how to pay for it — a new surcharge on electricity use — and bristled at the tough negotiating tactics and rhetoric he has used to advance his ideas.

"I understand the thought process of where he wants to go," said the Senate's president pro tempore, Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.