Kerry to Unveil Plan to Reduce Gas Prices

[kskiska]

SACRAMENTO, March 29 -- With gasoline prices hitting new highs across the country, Sen. John F. Kerry plans to propose new policies on Tuesday for reducing auto fuel costs in a move certain to escalate the election-year political fight over prices at the pump.

Facing GOP attacks for advocating higher gas taxes as a senator, the Massachusetts Democrat will call on President Bush to apply greater pressure on oil-producing nations to increase production, in a bid to drive down crude oil prices, and to temporarily suspend filling U.S. oil reserves, said Stephanie Cutter, a Kerry spokeswoman.

Kerry will argue that diverting oil intended for U.S. reserves directly to the market will help depress gas prices, though analysts say that probably would have only a negligible effect. Kerry also intends to reiterate his longer-term plans for decreasing the country's dependence on foreign oil and increasing its reliance on cleaner-burning alternative forms of energy.

(snip)

The Democrats believe that the price of gas could become a major flash point in the presidential debate over oil, the economy, and even Iraq and broader Middle East foreign policies. As one measure of the political sensitivity of the issue, a group of House Republicans, looking ahead to their Memorial Day visits to their districts, has formally asked the White House to do what Kerry is calling for -- ease pressure on prices by suspending shipments to the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the government's emergency stockpile of oil.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34436-2004Mar29.html

[DeepModem Mom]

1. More from the article: Bush campaign tactics --

".... the Bush campaign dispatched surrogates to Minnesota, Arizona, Missouri, Maine and New Hampshire to hold news events criticizing Kerry for advocating a gas tax increase in the past.

Kerry did vote for the tax increase but has since said he opposes one. The Bush campaign has also linked Kerry's earlier call for a tax increase with his current support for raising fuel-economy standards on sport-utility vehicles and trucks -- a move strongly opposed by the auto industry and many consumers. Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign, said Kerry has a 'philosophy that an effective energy policy is manipulating what kind of automobiles Americans can afford to drive.'..."

[bonemachine]

11. The gax tax proposition was from years ago.

Currently he is now proposing that we actually eliminate, rather than increase, gas taxes.


Bush’s campaign argues that if Kerry had his way, gasoline prices would be even higher. Vice President Cheney said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on Monday that Kerry once supported a 50-cent-per-gallon increase in gasoline taxes. Kerry mentioned such an increase in a newspaper interview but has never offered legislation for such a tax. He has since rejected the idea.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4630191 /






If the only thing that Congress and President Bush wanted to do was reduce the cost of gasoline, they could take steps such as drawing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as President Bill Clinton did in October of 2000 and as Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle proposed Tuesday should be done again.

Congress could even cut the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal excise tax on gasoline, a step Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole proposed in 1996.

Playing the Dole role this year, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, through his campaign press releases, has berated Bush for not moving to cut the gasoline tax.

The professed goal of both Kerry and President Bush is a lower price at the pump.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4632875 /


================================

SSDD...

[Cooley Hurd]

2. Morning Kick

:kick:

[BeFree]

3. A simple fact

If you have one gallon of gas and two people who need it, yet one person has to have the whole gallon, then there is a shortage. If however, each of the two only need a quart, then you have a surplus.

We can, and must, blame our current shortage on those people who will not restrict their unlimited needs. Those greedy bastards are the cause of the shortage.

[Toucano]

4. Watch out, John.

Advocating diverting U.S. reserves opens you up for more "weak on security" charges.

Tread carefully on this one, please.

The leadership on this issue we need is a plan to help Americans conserve fuel. Encourage conservation as a patriotic duty, coordinate ride sharing programs, and teach people how to plan their trips for maximum fuel savings. Make it the trendy thing to do.

[Stuckinthebush]

6. Normally, I'd agree

However with GOP Senators making the same push, Kerry can insulate himself by saying that reasonable members of congress from both sides of the aisle agree with him in this action.

[phantom power]

9. I agree, but

the last president who did this (Carter) more or less got ridiculed for it. Still, it's the right thing to do.

I really hope Kerry makes some kind of public tie-in between a national renewables/conservation program, and job creation. People will respond positively to job creation. They will also respond to his theme of independence from middle-eastern oil. But too much emphasis on "sacrifice" won't play well.

[ZR2]

5. Forgive my ignorance on this topic

but how can the President have any control over an item that is freely traded in the commodities market. Do not the commodities traders have the final say in the price of oil and gasoline ?

[NashVegas]

7. The President Can Open Up the Reserves

that's what Clinton did.

[seasat]

8. Easy...

Commodities work on supply and demand if you increase supply (alternative fuels) or decrease demand (raise CAFE standards) you reduce the price of oil.

[jmcgowanjm]

12. yes/ Backwardation – Fast Forward into the future

15/03/04 by Edward Teague

The shortages are real … the oil price is going up for literally any reason that suggests itself to suppliers.

http://www.williambowles.info/guests/backwardation.html

Latest reason:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2476496

[peachy]

10. But Kerry doesn't have the courage

to say that this is only the beginning of the end of cheap oil. He doesn't have the courage to call for an all out national program to end our addiction to the slippery black stuff before its too late.

And just below the surface lays the fact that the oil market is being manipulated by corporate interests in much the same way that Enron manipulated the energy market.

But hey don't worry before we run out of oil we'll discover the secret of magic fairy dust and we'll spread it over our food crops and they will magically fly to our tables without the petrolium run tractors and fertilizers and transportation that they overwelmingly require now.