Nickdfresh
08-25-2005, 01:15 PM
August 25, 2005
GOP Fears Gas Price Anger May Spill Over
By Richard Simon and Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — As consumers feel pain at the pump, record high gas prices are registering as a political problem with congressional Republicans.
At a town hall meeting this week, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wanted to talk about Social Security and Medicare, but the session quickly turned to gas prices.
When Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) toured a Veterans Affairs clinic Wednesday, the first question put to her was: "What are you going to do about the high price of gasoline?"
And a growing number of GOP officials worry that, as the party in power, Republicans will pay their own high price — at the ballot box. They are scrambling to find ways to respond.
"People are mad as hell," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
Oil prices, which hit an all-time high Wednesday, and gasoline prices are expected to be top items on the agenda when Congress returns from its monthlong recess after Labor Day.
As one of its first orders of business, the Senate will hold a hearing to examine the causes of the price increases, and oil executives might be summoned to testify.
"You can safely predict, with more accuracy than any TV weatherman, that the first blizzard of the year will be the blizzard of gas price legislation introduced this September when Congress comes back to town," said Stuart Roy, a former House GOP leadership aide.
But it is unclear what lawmakers can do to reduce gas prices in the short term — and whether voters will accept the argument that they have few tools to provide immediate relief.
"We should be nervous," said Kingston, vice chairman of the House Republican Conference.
Polls show that the public blames politicians — after oil companies and foreign oilproducing countries — for the high prices. A Harris Poll released Wednesday found that Americans ranked gas prices among the top five issues for the government to address. Compounding the problem for the GOP, Democrats are spotlighting fuel costs in their campaign to wrest control of Congress.
Republican candidates facing tough races in 2006 should be worried, said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican political consultant.
"If I were a guy in a marginal race, I would be all over the oil companies," he said. "I'd be getting ahead of the curve right now, hauling them before my committee, holding hearings throughout my state — maybe introducing legislation to cap their CEO salaries."
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) predicted: "When [voters] start to see that this is not the end but the beginning [of high prices], they are going to be kind of harsh."
He said he had been hearing complaints from constituents this summer and expected them to intensify.
Gas this week reached a record nationwide average of $2.61 for a gallon for self-serve regular, according to AAA. Experts project that oil prices will remain above $55 a barrel through next year.
Republicans "still have the majority," Shays said. "We still get to set the agenda. I'm very concerned. Under our watch, we're seeing this happening."
Republicans have been considering not only what to do about gas prices but how to talk about them. GOP pollster Frank Luntz said Republicans should argue more effectively to the public that the recently passed energy bill would eventually bring down prices by increasing supply.
That legislation — the first overhaul of national energy policy in more than a decade — offers tax breaks and other incentives to spur production and to encourage consumers to buy cars that are more fuel-efficient. It also aims to diversify domestic energy supplies.
"If Republicans explain that the legislation takes time to have an impact, they're inoculated" from the political risk of sustained high prices, Luntz said. "The only way Democrats can get an advantage on gas prices is to show that their policies would bring them down. It is not enough to blame Republicans; you need a solution."
Still, an increasing number of Republicans say Congress needs to do more.
Backers of President Bush's longtime goal of opening a portion of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration hope that the high prices will prod Congress to give final approval to the drilling measure, perhaps as early as next month.
Opponents of Arctic drilling argue that it would take years to tap the oil, and that the amount of oil beneath the tundra has been exaggerated.
Congress members are also expected to push to let states opt out of a decades-long moratorium on new offshore oil drilling.
Some Republicans have joined Democrats in calling on Bush to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But Bush adamantly opposes using oil from the nation's emergency stockpile except in a national security crisis. The Republican chairman of the Senate Energy Committee has argued that the gas price drop was negligible when President Clinton tapped the reserve in 2000.
Such measures are aimed at increasing the supply of gas and oil. Republicans are showing less enthusiasm for proposals to reduce demand. Although the Bush administration this week did propose higher fuel mileage standards for most sport utility vehicles, pickups and minivans, some lawmakers and activists say the government could require even more fuel efficiency without sacrificing safety or auto performance.
Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that with gas above $2.50 a gallon in Texas, his constituents were complaining plenty about prices. But when he lists for people the possible short-term fixes — "price controls, mandatory carpooling, lowering speed limits — they say, 'No, we're not for that.'
"People would love to be paying about half what they're paying for gasoline, but they're not willing to subject themselves to the loss of personal freedom and convenience that that would require," Barton said.
The executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Steven Nadel, said many lawmakers hesitated to adopt ideas for reducing gasoline demand because they were philosophically opposed to government intervention in the market.
In addition, he said, some fear that attack ads might say, "Senator so-and-so is trying to take away your pickup truck," because the auto industry asserts that significantly tougher fuel-economy standards would lead to lighter, less-safe vehicles.
Lawmakers also are jittery because of the limits on what they can do to bring down prices.
"Unfortunately, this is a difficult problem that doesn't have an easy solution," said Capito, the West Virginia lawmaker. "People don't want to hear that, and I don't want to say it. But that's the truth."
In an earlier generation, energy problems created trouble for President Carter. But today's situation is different, said John J. Pitney Jr., a former Republican National Committee staff member who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College.
"In the 1970s, many people believed in price controls and the breakup of the oil companies," he said. "Those ideas have fallen out of favor. Back then, there were urban legends about oil-filled tankers anchored just over the horizon, waiting until shortages drove prices up. This time, there doesn't seem to be an obvious target. Any politician who tried to scapegoat SUV drivers would soon find a district office full of angry soccer moms and NASCAR dads."
Some GOP strategists say they don't see any greater risk for Republicans than for Democratic incumbents.
"I think anybody in office — Republican or Democrat — is somewhat concerned, because, unlike a lot of other big issues out there, this one impacts people where they care about it most, and that's their pocketbook," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Carl Forti.
Barton, the House Energy Committee chairman, said complaints about high prices were hard to escape.
Because his car has a congressional license plate, people have come up to him and asked, "Are you Congressman Barton?" But with public irritation so high, he said, "My temptation is to say, 'No, I'm just working for him.' "
Link (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gasoline25aug25,1,7133481,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true)
GOP Fears Gas Price Anger May Spill Over
By Richard Simon and Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — As consumers feel pain at the pump, record high gas prices are registering as a political problem with congressional Republicans.
At a town hall meeting this week, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wanted to talk about Social Security and Medicare, but the session quickly turned to gas prices.
When Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) toured a Veterans Affairs clinic Wednesday, the first question put to her was: "What are you going to do about the high price of gasoline?"
And a growing number of GOP officials worry that, as the party in power, Republicans will pay their own high price — at the ballot box. They are scrambling to find ways to respond.
"People are mad as hell," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
Oil prices, which hit an all-time high Wednesday, and gasoline prices are expected to be top items on the agenda when Congress returns from its monthlong recess after Labor Day.
As one of its first orders of business, the Senate will hold a hearing to examine the causes of the price increases, and oil executives might be summoned to testify.
"You can safely predict, with more accuracy than any TV weatherman, that the first blizzard of the year will be the blizzard of gas price legislation introduced this September when Congress comes back to town," said Stuart Roy, a former House GOP leadership aide.
But it is unclear what lawmakers can do to reduce gas prices in the short term — and whether voters will accept the argument that they have few tools to provide immediate relief.
"We should be nervous," said Kingston, vice chairman of the House Republican Conference.
Polls show that the public blames politicians — after oil companies and foreign oilproducing countries — for the high prices. A Harris Poll released Wednesday found that Americans ranked gas prices among the top five issues for the government to address. Compounding the problem for the GOP, Democrats are spotlighting fuel costs in their campaign to wrest control of Congress.
Republican candidates facing tough races in 2006 should be worried, said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican political consultant.
"If I were a guy in a marginal race, I would be all over the oil companies," he said. "I'd be getting ahead of the curve right now, hauling them before my committee, holding hearings throughout my state — maybe introducing legislation to cap their CEO salaries."
Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) predicted: "When [voters] start to see that this is not the end but the beginning [of high prices], they are going to be kind of harsh."
He said he had been hearing complaints from constituents this summer and expected them to intensify.
Gas this week reached a record nationwide average of $2.61 for a gallon for self-serve regular, according to AAA. Experts project that oil prices will remain above $55 a barrel through next year.
Republicans "still have the majority," Shays said. "We still get to set the agenda. I'm very concerned. Under our watch, we're seeing this happening."
Republicans have been considering not only what to do about gas prices but how to talk about them. GOP pollster Frank Luntz said Republicans should argue more effectively to the public that the recently passed energy bill would eventually bring down prices by increasing supply.
That legislation — the first overhaul of national energy policy in more than a decade — offers tax breaks and other incentives to spur production and to encourage consumers to buy cars that are more fuel-efficient. It also aims to diversify domestic energy supplies.
"If Republicans explain that the legislation takes time to have an impact, they're inoculated" from the political risk of sustained high prices, Luntz said. "The only way Democrats can get an advantage on gas prices is to show that their policies would bring them down. It is not enough to blame Republicans; you need a solution."
Still, an increasing number of Republicans say Congress needs to do more.
Backers of President Bush's longtime goal of opening a portion of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration hope that the high prices will prod Congress to give final approval to the drilling measure, perhaps as early as next month.
Opponents of Arctic drilling argue that it would take years to tap the oil, and that the amount of oil beneath the tundra has been exaggerated.
Congress members are also expected to push to let states opt out of a decades-long moratorium on new offshore oil drilling.
Some Republicans have joined Democrats in calling on Bush to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But Bush adamantly opposes using oil from the nation's emergency stockpile except in a national security crisis. The Republican chairman of the Senate Energy Committee has argued that the gas price drop was negligible when President Clinton tapped the reserve in 2000.
Such measures are aimed at increasing the supply of gas and oil. Republicans are showing less enthusiasm for proposals to reduce demand. Although the Bush administration this week did propose higher fuel mileage standards for most sport utility vehicles, pickups and minivans, some lawmakers and activists say the government could require even more fuel efficiency without sacrificing safety or auto performance.
Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that with gas above $2.50 a gallon in Texas, his constituents were complaining plenty about prices. But when he lists for people the possible short-term fixes — "price controls, mandatory carpooling, lowering speed limits — they say, 'No, we're not for that.'
"People would love to be paying about half what they're paying for gasoline, but they're not willing to subject themselves to the loss of personal freedom and convenience that that would require," Barton said.
The executive director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Steven Nadel, said many lawmakers hesitated to adopt ideas for reducing gasoline demand because they were philosophically opposed to government intervention in the market.
In addition, he said, some fear that attack ads might say, "Senator so-and-so is trying to take away your pickup truck," because the auto industry asserts that significantly tougher fuel-economy standards would lead to lighter, less-safe vehicles.
Lawmakers also are jittery because of the limits on what they can do to bring down prices.
"Unfortunately, this is a difficult problem that doesn't have an easy solution," said Capito, the West Virginia lawmaker. "People don't want to hear that, and I don't want to say it. But that's the truth."
In an earlier generation, energy problems created trouble for President Carter. But today's situation is different, said John J. Pitney Jr., a former Republican National Committee staff member who teaches government at Claremont McKenna College.
"In the 1970s, many people believed in price controls and the breakup of the oil companies," he said. "Those ideas have fallen out of favor. Back then, there were urban legends about oil-filled tankers anchored just over the horizon, waiting until shortages drove prices up. This time, there doesn't seem to be an obvious target. Any politician who tried to scapegoat SUV drivers would soon find a district office full of angry soccer moms and NASCAR dads."
Some GOP strategists say they don't see any greater risk for Republicans than for Democratic incumbents.
"I think anybody in office — Republican or Democrat — is somewhat concerned, because, unlike a lot of other big issues out there, this one impacts people where they care about it most, and that's their pocketbook," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Carl Forti.
Barton, the House Energy Committee chairman, said complaints about high prices were hard to escape.
Because his car has a congressional license plate, people have come up to him and asked, "Are you Congressman Barton?" But with public irritation so high, he said, "My temptation is to say, 'No, I'm just working for him.' "
Link (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gasoline25aug25,1,7133481,full.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true)