Republicans offer gas-price relief
WASHINGTON – Fearing public ire over rising gasoline prices, Republicans on Thursday unveiled a sweeping – if politically impractical – package of measures to give consumers some relief, including a proposed $100 taxpayer rebate.
Democrats derided the Republican proposal as insincere, noting that it incorporates ideas already introduced by Democrats and contains provisions sure to torpedo Senate passage, including a measure to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling that has been voted down repeatedly.
Joining the rebate with the controversial drilling is not “a sincere effort,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., author of an earlier proposal for a $500 taxpayer rebate. “I think that they understand that they are in trouble.”
With emotions running high on both sides, a Democratic senator even staged a five-hour filibuster, refusing to leave the Senate floor in an effort to force oil companies to pay more in royalties to drill for oil on public lands. “Government subsidies may be needed when the price is low, when we have to simulate production,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. “But billions of dollars of royalty relief for oil companies are not needed at a time when prices are soaring to record-high levels.”
By the end of the day, the two parties essentially played to a draw – neither the rebate idea nor Democratic proposals appear to have much chance of becoming law. But the political theatrics showed that in the face of rising prices at the pump, each party hopes to direct the public anger toward the opposition.
At an outdoor news conference with the Capitol dome as a backdrop, Republicans blamed the current gas price crisis on Democrats, who they said have blocked measures to increase oil production, including arctic drilling.
“Those who stand up and criticize for high gas prices and suggest that somehow or another that the blame is upon those of us who had been pushing for increased supply of energy in this country, I think they need to look in the mirror,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., chairman of a Republican task force on energy that drew up the proposal. “(Democrats) are the ones who have simply blocked every attempt for us to build transmission networks, whether it’s electric transmission networks, or whether it’s oil and gas networks, or whether it’s energy generating, or whether it’s oil and gas production.”
Democrats blamed the high prices on Republicans, who they accused of being too cozy with large oil companies and too eager to pass out tax breaks to them. They described the rebate as a meaningless gesture, arguing it would wind up in oil company coffers anyway since consumers would use it to buy gasoline.
“It is disappointing that neither sky-rocketing gas prices nor obscene oil company profits can break the bond between Bush Republicans and Big Oil,” said Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Americans are struggling to pay the rising cost of gas, and they are not interested in handouts to help oil companies make more money by letting them drill in wildlife refuges.”
The high prices – above the $3-a-gallon mark in many regions of the country – are the result of a confluence of forces that have constricted supply and experts say few of the measures under discussion on Capitol Hill would have much effect.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing, really, that can be done that’s going to affect energy prices or gasoline prices in the very short run,” Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers at a hearing Thursday.
Many Republicans, including the president, have previously opposed raising fuel efficiency requirements, known as CAFE standards. But on Thursday, President Bush endorsed the idea.
“One idea is to give me a capacity to raise CAFE standards on automobiles,” President Bush said at a gas station in Biloxi, Miss. “I encourage them to give me that authority. It’s authority that I use for light trucks. And I intend to use it wisely if Congress would give me that authority.”