Gas Price Rhetoric

With the price of gas exceeding $3 a gallon, panicked Republicans are searching for a political solution. In classic administration style, the President yesterday heralded his approach by making grandiose claims that will have minor if any impact on prices or energy policy.

Bush said he will suspend shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve thereby boosting supply and holding down prices. Two years ago, when Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry suggested suspending purchases for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Bush responded, "We will not play politics with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," which he emphasized is solely for "major disruptions of energy supplies." According to industry experts and administration officials this action will increase the domestic supply by less than 1 percent. This could save consumers a few cents per gallon at best, energy experts said. Philip K. Verleger, an Aspen, Colo.-based oil consultant, said that Bush's proposals were "more or less like prescribing aspirin to take care of prostate cancer."

The president also said he will temporarily ease environmental regulations that require the use of cleaner-burning fuel additives to cut down on summertime pollution. If at all possible, any action taken by this administration will contain a benefit to industry and a detriment to either consumers or the environment.

Bush said that excessive oil company profits will be investigated by three different federal departments. Sounds good except at the same moment Congress agreed to strike Senate-passed measures that would raise taxes on the major oil companies by nearly $5 billion over five years.

Not mentioned in the speech is that Bush rejected one change that some experts said could reduce oil consumption: tougher federally mandated fuel-economy standards for cars, trucks and SUVs. Doing so of course would hamper the automobile industry from continuing its illogical drive to sell SUVs to the American public