Saturday, July 01, 2000
Congress divided on oil relief
Prices spur proposals
By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT MITCHELL — Kentucky U.S. Rep. Ken Lucas has supported a move in Congress that would begin an investigation into whether oil-rich nations are gouging Americans through high gasoline prices.
Kentucky U.S. Senators Jim Bunning, of Southgate, and Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, meanwhile, want the government to temporarily cut the federal gas tax, at 18.4 cents a gallon, to provide relief to consumers.
Mr. McConnell also favors exploring for oil in what is now environmentally protected land in the Alaska wilderness.
All these ideas and proposals are in response to the high prices Americans and others are paying at the gas pump. It is unclear, though, whether any of the suggestions will be implemented.
Mr. Lucas, a Boone County Democrat running for re-election this year in Northern Kentucky's 4th District, has supported a U.S. House resolution that calls on Congress to investigate the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel of 11-oil producing nations known as OPEC.
“By withholding production, OPEC sticks out like a sore thumb as the primary culprit of the 300 percent increase in oil prices from January 1999 to June 2000,” Mr. Lucas said.
“I find it outrageous that the same countries we defend time after time are gouging Americans at the pump,” Mr. Lucas said.
“If OPEC is going to stiff our farmers, truck drivers and working families across Kentucky, we're going to strike back.”
For now, a vote on the bill is not scheduled, but it could come up if prices remain high over the next several weeks, Mr. Lucas said.
Mr. Bunning and Mr. McConnell have both pushed a bill that would temporarily suspend the federal gas tax.
“We tried to bring it to the floor, and the Democrats would not even vote for it to be voted on,” Mr. Bunning said.
Mr. McConnell said the country is suffering from a lack of a long term energy policy. He favors legislation, or at least a policy, that would allow drilling in a “small portion of Alaska oil fields” that have been off-limits to oil companies because the land is located in environmentally sensitive and federally protected areas.
The Clinton administration “does not want us to explore or drill for domestic oil,” Mr. McConnell said, “and we've now gone up to 55 percent dependence on imported oil for our existence.”
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