Mark Fischenich
The Free Press
June 27, 2008 10:09 pm
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Politicians are having a difficult time agreeing on what to do about sky-high gas prices, but they’re speaking in unison on one point: They feel your pain.
“We have an energy crisis right now,” said U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican in the midst of his first Senate re-election campaign. “The cost of gas is imposing severe hardships on people across the state.”
“This is a topic of great concern,” said Congressman Tim Walz, a Mankato Democrat also seeking a second term.
It’s not just incumbents.
“There are some people have to choose between paying their electric bills or driving to work,” said Brian Davis, the GOP-endorsed challenger against Walz. “And it’s the rural areas of America that are hit the worst.”
“Hardly a day goes by when I don’t hear about another Minnesotan affected by the skyrocketing cost of gas,” writes Democrat Al Franken, Coleman’s opponent, on his campaign Web site. “There’s the family that won’t be going up to the cabin this summer ... the construction company laying off workers and retiring trucks ... .”
If drivers could fuel their vehicles with press releases, media conference calls and campaign speeches, the pump-price problem might disappear.
Despite the clear realization that drivers are suffering and are in a surly mood four months before they will be voting, politicians haven’t come to agreement on a strategy for near-term reductions in fuel prices.
There’s a virtually universal call for developing alternative energy to petroleum products, but the elected officials and their campaign challengers freely admit that renewable fuels offer only future price relief.
Policing profiteers
For short-term price reductions, both Republicans and Democrats are looking to send signals to the marketplace.
The Democrats are sponsoring legislation that attempts to put a scare into energy “speculators” who they blame for driving up prices much more than the law of supply and demand would justify.
House Democrats, including Walz, are pushing a bill that would encourage the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and punish those taking advantage of American consumers, Walz said. Criminal penalties of up to $150 million would be allowed for corporations found guilty of “gas price gouging.”
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who’s not up for re-election, is focusing on commodity futures traders who some are accusing of driving up oil prices. Klobuchar is pushing legislation to give additional staff and authority to federal regulators who police the futures markets.
Other Democrats — including Franken — have pushed for windfall profits taxes on oil companies with proceeds dedicated to renewable energy development and tax relief for low- and middle-income drivers. Republicans say that higher taxes on oil companies would be a disincentive for additional oil production.
“That’s counterproductive,” Davis said.
Pumping up supply
Republicans have generally been pushing for more oil drilling either in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or with offshore oil rigs.
Davis — and Dick Day, his GOP challenger in the Republican primary election — favor both. Coleman supports more offshore drilling but not opening ANWR to oil exploration.
They say oil-drilling practices have improved to the point the environment could be protected while dramatically boosting the amount of petroleum American can produce. When pressed, they admit the increased production would be a decade or more away.
“It’s definitely a long-term benefit,” Davis said. “I have four young children. I want our economy to be strong, our country to be prosperous in 20 years.”
But Davis and other Republicans say they think there could be a more immediate, albeit slight, impact of an announcement that previously off-limits areas would be open to the oil companies.
“Oil is a commodity,” Davis said. “Part of its price is based on perceived future availability.”
Minnesota, of course, is about as far as a place could be from the oil rigs that would spring up on the coasts or in the Alaskan wilderness, making it easier for elected officials to support more drilling.
When Coleman was asked about his willingness to support drilling in Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes, where there is believed to be the potential for large reserves of natural gas, his response was ambiguous.
“I’d take a look at it,” he said. “I’m not saying I’d do it or not do it.”
A short time later, the answer changed when Coleman spokesman Leroy Coleman called reporters who had participated in the senator’s Friday conference call.
“What he meant to say is he believes we need to know where all our domestic resources are, but that he’s unequivocally opposed to drilling in the Great Lakes,” Leroy Coleman said.
Placing blame
There is one thing the politicians agree on, other than that they understand Americans are struggling with energy costs: The other guys are to blame.
Walz mentioned that oil companies are prospering — and oil prices have skyrocketed — in the seven-plus years that former oilman George W. Bush and former oil company executive Dick Cheney have been in the White House.
“We don’t have a national energy policy,” Walz said last week.
“We have an oil company executive retirement policy.”
Walz said Republicans did very little to deal with the pending energy crisis during the years when they controlled both the White House and Congress. And Franken said too many lawmakers are beholden to the oil companies.
“Minnesotans are paying $4 a gallon at the pump,” Franken said in a speech earlier this month after winning the DFL endorsement to run against Coleman. “But Norm Coleman doesn’t work for them. He works for the oil companies.”
Republicans blame Democrats, who won control of the House and Senate in the 2006 election, for being obstinate on allowing exploration and drilling.
“That’s a terrible mistake,” Coleman said. “And the people of this state should be angry.”
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