NEW YORK — Investors in power companies who were sipping champagne after President Bush unveiled his national energy strategy got a bad case of the hiccups when Democrats regained control of the Senate.

        Shares of companies that trade power climbed higher in the days after the release of the Bush plan. They've been sliding since Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont defected from the Republican Party, and Wall Street analysts say perceptions about the fate of the Bush plan are a factor.

        “The energy bill was so favorable it almost seemed like (power companies) got everything they would have asked for,” said Barry Abramson, utility analyst at UBS Warburg. “Now it looks like everything is going to be more difficult to achieve, but not impossible.”

        The Bush plan seeks to give oil and gas drillers easier access to public lands, to speed up the review process for refinery and power plant expansions and spur renewed interest in nuclear power.

        Shares of Calpine Corp., Dynegy Inc. and Mirant Corp. climbed steadily from May 16 to May 22 — the time between the release of the Bush plan and reports of a Senate shake-up.

        Those stocks began to descend May 23, when Sen. Jeffords' plans were first reported, and have continued downward, with Calpine losing 10 percent, Dynegy slipping 12 percent and Mirant off nearly 13 percent by the end of the day Tuesday.

        Still, analysts say investors may be overreacting.

        “Despite the fanfare following the unveiling of President Bush's energy plan, we believed its chances of passage — even with a Republican majority — was slim at best,” said Daniel Ford, head of Lehman Brothers' team of energy analysts. “With Jeffords' move, the effort may be even more remote, but the most likely outcome, inaction, has not changed.”

        Democrats no doubt will emphasize conservation more than Republicans would have, but the momentum shift in the Senate toward conservation will not be overly dramatic, according to Bill Breier, vice president of the Edison Electric Institute, a Washington-based group that represents utilities.

        “There's going to have to be consensus and we've known that from the get-go,” Mr. Breier said.

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