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Thursday, March 23, 2000

House bill takes aim at OPEC
Price-fixing countries would see aid cuts
By H. Josef Hebert
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - In the first congressional challenge to OPEC oil production cuts, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation Wednesday that calls on the president to consider restrictions of military assistance to oil producing countries engaged in price fixing.
   Approved by a 382-38 vote, the measure prompted a heated partisan debate over the government's energy policies and whether the bill, in fact, would have any substantive impact on current - or even future - oil prices.
   The House acted as Senate Republicans moved toward a largely symbolic vote on a proposed "gas tax holiday," reviving efforts to cut the federal gas tax. A tax rollback ran into trouble last week in the House where its future is uncertain.
   But Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott quietly filed two gasoline tax bills - one to suspend the 4.3 cent-per-gallon increase that Congress approved in 1993 on the strength of a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Al Gore. The other, given remote chance, would suspend the entire 18.4 cent federal levy.
   Described by supporters as a "wake-up call for the administration" to be tougher on OPEC, the House-approved bill was disparaged by Democrats as "feel-good fluff" that does little to address the problems of soaring oil and gasoline prices. Even so, 187 Democrats joined most Republicans in the final vote on the bill, which stops short of requiring the use of military assistance programs as leverage.
   A variety of measures, mostly offered by Democrats, to suspend oil exports from Alaska, provide tax credits for energy efficiency, and one calling for an antidumping trade investigation of OPEC, were ruled as not relevant to the legislation under House rules.
   "Sometimes people laugh at Congress. This is a day for laughing," declared Rep. Martin Frost, D-Texas, who accused the Republican majority of pushing "meaningless" legislation while refusing to reauthorize the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
   Formal authority for the reserve, which contains nearly 570 million barrels of oil for emergencies, expires at the end of the month, although Energy Secretary Bill Richardson has said he still will have authority to tap the reserve if necessary.
   The legislation, offered by Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., requires the president to produce a variety of reports on pricing practices by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and negotiate with other countries to "reduce, suspend or terminate" military assistance and arms exports to countries found to have "engaged in price fixing."
   Partisan debate
   This "spotlights OPEC's price-fixing activities" and "sends a clear message to the administration and to the oil producing nations that oil price fixing is harmful to the American consumer," said Gilman.
   But the debate quickly turned to partisan attacks over America's energy policy, with Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of failing to come up with substantive measures to deal with OPEC's actions and the tripling of oil prices over the past 14 months.
   The bill will show OPEC "that not all branches of this government are asleep at the wheel," declared Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., accusing the Clinton administration of sitting by idly for 18 months as prices soared. Other GOP lawmakers accused the White House of imposing an energy policy that has stifled domestic oil production.
   The administration is engaged in "tin-cup diplomacy, running around begging OPEC to open their valves ... (and) the Clinton-Gore administration is squarely to blame," fumed Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the majority whip.
   Blame game
   But Democrats shot back that it has been the Republican majority in Congress that has blocked legislation promoting energy conservation and more fuel efficient automobiles, and several years ago wanted to close down the Energy Department.
   Instead, the Republicans have offered "this feel-good piece of legislation," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., calling it little more than a requirement to issue reports that, he added mockingly, "already have them quaking in Kuwait, and quivering in Venezuela."
   Democrats complained about the Republicans refusing to allow them to propose - as part of the legislation - a variety of measures from a proposal to create a heating oil reserve in the Northeast to banning Alaska oil exports as proposed by a half dozen West Coast lawmakers.

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