by Matthew Hay Brown

The gas tax holiday gained a powerful ally in the House today when Minority Leader John Boehner signed on to legislation that would tie a summerlong suspension to a freeze on earmarks.

"Since Democrats refuse to lead on gas prices and earmark reform - top priorities of the American people - Republicans will," the Ohio Republican said.

Economists and other critics say a gas tax holiday would do little or nothing to reduce prices at the pump, but would deprive the Highway Trust Fund of billions of dollars in revenue.

The legislation introduced today by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committee, seeks to offset those loses by freezing spending on earmarks - an issue on which Republicans are attempting to regain the moral high ground.

"For far too long, taxpayers have been footing the bill for billions upon billions in wasteful Washington spending that our nation neither needs nor can afford," Boehner said. "An earmark ban will halt this pork-barrel spending until Congress comes up with a straightforward plan to reform the earmark process and restore some sanity to the federal budget."

by John Crewdson

It's a little-known fact that I worked my way through college pumping gas.

(In those years you never, ever got out of your car at the gas station. People like me pumped the gas for you, plus checking your tires and oil and washing your windows--all for free. Amazing).

In Berkeley in the Sixties, regular was going for 29.9. That's 29.9 cents. Per gallon.

You could fill your tank for $3.50, which is less than a gallon of gas now costs in much of the country. Such ridiculously cheap gas made the muscle cars possible.

The guys at the station where I worked drove Pontiac GTOs, Oldsmobile 4-4-2s and Mustangs to work. One even had a Shelby Cobra, with a zero-to-60 time of under five seconds.

Over the years the muscle cars morphed into SUVs that look like armored personnel carriers and require a second mortgage to operate.

Even now, with gas prices pushing $4, muscle cars are making a comeback. Although high gas prices have become a universal cause for complaint, they don't seem to faze us. Most Americans just moan and drive on.

And yet the proposal by John McCain and Hillary Clinton to give Americans "a little break over the summer" by suspending the federal gas tax didn't seem to garner much support. Which is paradoxical but also good, because it was exactly the wrong thing to do. Economists don't agree on much, but most of them will tell you that, even at $4, gas is still way too cheap.

The right thing to do, which will never be done, would be to raise the price of gas, to $6 or $8 or even $10 a gallon.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The congressional stalemate over prices at the pump continues.

Senate Democrats unveiled new energy legislation this afternoon that they said would address the root causes of rising gasoline prices. But their Consumer-First Energy Act, with its proposals to raise taxes on oil companies, is likely to be blocked by Senate Republicans.

Meanwhile, the Republican proposal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, introduced this afternoon as the American Energy Production Act, is even less likely to go anywhere in the Democratic Senate.

"Even as it costs Americans more every day to fill up their gas tanks, Bush Republicans only offer more of the same failed energy policies that brought us to this point," Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

The Democratic legislation, by contrast, protects consumers, he said.

"Instead of helping big oil make more money at the expense of average Americans, we are forcing oil companies to change their ways," Reid said. "We will hold them accountable for unconscionable price-gouging and force them to invest in renewable energy or pay a price for refusing to do so."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Senate Democrats are planning to unveil legislation tomorrow to contain rising prises at the pump - and it won't include the gas tax holiday idea that has dominated the last few days of the Democratic presidential primary race.

"We are going to come up with our own proposal tomorrow which won't be Clinton or Obama's, it will be the Senate Democrats'," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told CNN's Wolf Blizter this afternoon. "It's something that will have the ability to impact prices."

The Nevada Democrat didn't divulge details, but told Blitzer the bill would not iunclude the gas tax holiday favored by Hillary Clinton and opposed by Barack Obama. Panned by economists, the idea is seen as having no chance of making it through Congress.

"You decided that's not necessarily a good idea right now?" Blitzer asked.

"It's not what we're going to do," Reid said. "We're not going to interject ourselves in the presidential election."

by Mark Silva

For all the debate over a summer "gas-tax holiday'' on the presidential campaign trail, don't count on any gas-pump tax-break from Capitol Hill any time soon.

The Senate's Democrats will be rolling out a package of energy and gasoline proposals on Friday, but knowledgeable sources say it won't contain any gas-tax respite. Suspension of the 18.4-cent per-gallon federal gas tax from Memorial Day through Labor Day isn't going over well among many members of either party - who view it as offering little assistance for consumers and creating an $11-billion deficit for the government.

But the package is likely to include some of the "windfall profits taxes'' on oil companies that many Democrats have been advocating - regardless of the fact that the White House signaled pretty clearly this week that a windfall-tax on the oil companies, racking up record profits with the spiraling price of oil and gas, is a non-starter.

"We're just going to tie them as closely as we can to big oil,'' Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says of the White House, "and let the fight begin.''

The fight over a gas-tax break has provided fuel for Sen. Hillary Clinton's contest with Sen. Barack Obama. She supports the tax holiday. He opposes it.

"We're trying to draw a lot of attention to how much more costly it is to do anything in life anymore,'' Clinton said this week campaigning in Indiana.

Obama has replied with a TV ad arguing: "We could suspend the gas tax for six months, but that's not going to bring down gas prices long-term. You're gonna save about 25, 30 dollars, or half a tank of gas... That's typical of how Washington works. There's a problem, everybody's upset about gas prices - let's find some short-term, quick fix that we can say did something, even though we're not really doing anything.''

Republican Sen. John McCain also supports the tax holiday: "It's really just a little thing to give some people'' a boost, he suggested in an interview on MSNBC today. "You know, right now we want to pump up American confidence, hope, optimism, and, you know, they say they got a little bit of a break, particularly in rural America...''

"The problem with the gas tax holiday is that it could provide no relief for families while enriching oil companies,'' says Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Washington-based Center for American Progress. "There is no guarantee that the service station actually lowers the price of gasoline by the full 18.4 cents. They could lower it by 9 cents. They could leave the price the same...

by Matthew Hay Brown

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will give President Bush this much: He's one of a kind.

"Only President Bush could allow Big Oil to write our nation's energy policy, guarantee billions in oil tax breaks and refuse to stand up to OPEC or crack down on price gouging, and then shirk responsibility for gas prices that have more than doubled and oil prices that have quadrupled since he took office," the Nevada Democrat said today. "Only President Bush could be surprised to learn that gas was approaching $4 a gallon and then claim the White House is concerned about high gas prices."

Reid was responding to Bush's press conference this morning, during which the president said it was the Democratic Congress that was standing in the way of his efforts to restrain rising prices at the pump.

"One of the main reasons for high gas prices is that global oil production is not keeping up with growing demand," Bush said. "Members of Congress have been vocal about foreign governments increasing their oil production; yet Congress has been just as vocal in opposition to efforts to expand our production here at home.

"They repeatedly blocked environmentally safe exploration in ANWR," Bush said. "Congress has repeatedly blocked efforts to expand capacity and build more refineries. ... Congress continues to block provisions needed to increase domestic electricity production by expanding the use of clean, safe nuclear power."

by Matthew Hay Brown

Republicans have taken to calling the 50 percent increase in gasoline prices since Democrats took over last year the "Pelosi Premium." Democrats say Republicans are looking at the wrong time frame.

"When President Bush took office, gas prices were less than half of what they are today - and oil was less than one-third," Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey says in today's Democratic radio address. "Then, seven years ago, President Bush and Vice President Cheney secretly invited executives from the big oil and big energy companies to the White House to write our national energy policy. ...

"Now, they are hauling in record profits," Lautenberg says. "We are paying record prices. And their profits are coming out of our pockets."

Republicans have been hounding Pelosi to explain the "commonsense plan" to hold down gas prices that Democrats promised two years ago.

"Two years later, they appear to have no plan other than to increase taxes on energy companies and stand in the way of increased domestic production," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. "So what we want to know is, where is the 'commonsense plan' to lower gas prices? And what is taking them so long to unveil it? The American people are waiting--and paying more at the pump each day they wait."

In fact, Pelosi has spent a good part of the last week calling on Republicans to help pass legislation to crack down on price gouging, hold OPEC accountable for price fixing and end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

On Thursday, Pelosi urged Bush to halt deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. On Friday, Democrats called on the Federal Trade Commission to use the authority recently granted by Congress to investigate prices for possible market manipulation.

The larger problem is that for a price surge linked to market speculation, unrest in the Middle East, the week U.S. dollar and growing demand from China and India, there are no easy solutions. Lautenberg's address follows.

On April 23, 2008, a motorist fuels up at a San Mateo, Calif. gas station. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, file)

by Matthew Hay Brown

House Democrats are concluding their gas price-themed by calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate gasoline prices for possible market manipulation.

In a letter today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and other senior Democrats called on Commission William E. Kovacic to exercise new investigative authority granted by Congress in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

"Congress provided this authority to the FTC four months ago - but to date, the FTC has failed to exercise its power to protect consumers from skyrocketing energy costs," they wrote. "Recent price volatility and investor speculation in the oil market require the diligent oversight Congress called for, especially when oil prices break records daily."

On Thursday, Pelosi urged President Bush to stop suspend deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. She also has called on Bush and congressional Republicans to work with Democrats to pass legislation to crack down on gasoline price gouging, hold OPEC accountable for price fixing and end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

The letter follows.

by Matthew Hay Brown and David Nitkin

The White House is resisting bipartisan calls to halt new shipments to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve while gasoline prices at the pump continue to rise.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain today in asking President Bush to stop adding 60,000 barrels of oil each day the giant undergound caverns in Texas and Louisiana where the government keeps the reserve - a move they say would help reduce demand.

"Today the SPR is nearly 97 percent full," Pelosi told reporters today. "Independent experts report that suspending deliveries to SPR could cut as much as five cents on the low-end to 24 cents off a gallon of gas and provide real savings for families. ...

"Suspending delivery to SPR will not only increase supply, but impact energy prices by sending a signal to the market to stop runaway speculation."

The White House disagrees.

"The Administration continues to fill the reserve at a modest rate," spokesman Scott Stanzel said. "We don't believe the fill rates have a meaningful impact on oil supplies, as this oil equates to less than one tenth of one percent of daily world consumption. We continue to fill the reserve to provide an added layer of protection to the American people in cases of severe supply disruption."

Pelosi cited precedent for the move.

"Ahead of the first Gulf War, the first President Bush withdrew oil from the SPR. Withdrew oil from the SPR," she said. "We're not asking for that. President Clinton suspended SPR deliveries in 1995 and even the current President Bush withdrew oil from SPR and sold it on the market following Hurricane Katrina."

by Matthew Hay Brown

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under fire from House Republicans for failing to contain rising gas prices, is appealing to President Bush for help.

In a letter today, the California Democrat asks Bush to direct the Justice Department to investigate oil cartel price-fixing, authorize the Federal Trade Commission to pursue and punish "price gougers," end tax breaks for oil companies and invest the savings in renewable energy.

"Lastly, your administration must use the authority given to it by the Congress to end market manipulation," Pelosi writes. "We cannot wait to act in the face of these price increases."

The letters appears to be a response, of sorts, to a campaign by the House Republican Conference accusing Democrats of breaking a promise to contain gas prices. Yesterday, they were calling the increase at the pump since Democrats took control of Congress last year the "Pelosi Premium."

Democrats say Republicans are blocking their efforts to wean America of foreign oil. Pelosi's letter follows.

by Matthew Hay Brown

Executives from Exxon Mobil, Shell and BP America all have been called to account before Congress today on oil company profits and rising prices at the pump. One oil baron who wishes he had been invited, according to House Republican Leader John A. Boehner, is Hugo Chávez.

With the hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming now underway, Boehner has released the “testimony” of the Venezuelan strongman. As the Ohio Republican has it, Chávez is particularly interested in expressing grattitude to House Democrats for tax breaks that he says would benefit CITGO, the state-owned oil giant.

“It is especially relieving to know that while CITGO receives these tax breaks, five other major oil companies – including American-owned companies employing thousands of working Americans – will be forced to pay higher taxes, raising energy costs on consumers in your country and endangering scores of jobs as well,” Chávez says. “Please extend my gratitude to Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Whip Clyburn, Chairman Emanuel, and everyone who played a role in scheduling this legislation for a vote in the House of Representatives.

“Being a socialist dictator is a difficult – and often lonely – burden these days,” he continues. “As more nations move toward democracy, the number of socialist dictators in our world is declining, and we can use all the help we can get.”

It is, of course, an April Fool’s Day joke. The complete “testimony” follows.

by Mark Silva

With gasoline approaching $4 per gallon, the top-five oil executives have dates with a congressional committee today.

"These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," complains Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.)

Top executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips – which earned a combined $123 billion last year – are set to testify before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Markey, chairman, wants to ask why, with such profits, the oil industry is fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks, stretched over 10 years. Executives will be asked to explain how they can get energy prices down in the short run and "in the long run what are they going to do to shift the focus to a renewable energy agenda."

"We have to move beyond this oil economy," Markey said today on CBS News' The Early Show. "We have to move to a renewable energy economy. ... We can never get out of this trap as long as the oil companies want to hold us hostage to this old agenda."

The House last year and again on Feb. 27 approved legislation to end tax breaks for the oil giants, while using the revenue to support wind, solar and other renewable fuels and incentives for energy conservation. The measure has not passed the Senate.

The oil industry has argued that the tax breaks assure continuing investment in exploration, production and refinery expansions.

President Bush has promised to veto any bill eliminating the exemptions, arguing that the oil companies should not be singled out.

By Matthew Hay Brown

As oil futures topped $100 a barrel today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said congressional Democrats would try again to end government breaks for the industry – an approach that has been rejected by President Bush.

“It is unfortunate that President Bush opposed our legislation to repeal multi-billion dollar subsidies given to Big Oil companies,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We will again seek to repeal these subsidies and to enact strong legislation to stop price gouging at the pump and pursue anti-trust actions against OPEC entities that fix the price of oil.”

The White House, meanwhile, spoke of expanding domestic production, including drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

“We have to figure out a way to increase supply here in the United States, done in environmentally sensitive ways, which we know how to do, so that we can have an increase supply of oil here while world demand continues to increase at a really astronomical pace for demand for oil,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters.

Violence in the Nigerian oil center of Port Harcourt and rough weather that threatened oil-exporting ports in Mexico helped push the price of light, sweet crude for February delivery over the century mark, the Associated Press reports. Adjusted for inflation, the cost remains within range of highs set in 1980.

Prices at the pump, which tend to lag behind futures, rose slightly today, according to the Oil Price Information Service. The national average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed 0.6 cents today to $3.049. That was down from $3.061 a month ago, but up from $2.322 a year ago.

Barack Obama at the Redemption World Outreach Center in Greenville, S.C., on Sunday. Today. he presents an energy policy. AP photo by Mary Ann Chastain

by Mike Dorning

Presidential candidate Barack Obama hopes to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and combat global warming with a national auction system that would make every company pay for the right to emit smoke and other sources of carbon.

The "cap-and-trade" auction system is based on the idea that the easiest way to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to global warming is to simply charge a price for pollution. The approach has long been favored by environmentally minded free-market economists who believe that a pollution "price" would reduce emissions more efficiently than complex government regulations.

Under the Obama plan to be formally announced in a speech today, the government would set a national cap on carbon emissions that by 2050 would be reduced gradually to 80 percent of 1990 carbon emissions. The national cap in turn would determine the number of individual carbon allowances available for auction to industry. So the price of a carbon allowance should reach the level necessary to limit emissions to the right level.

Promoters of the approach believe that such an auction system works better than complicated government standards for industry-by-industry emissions limits and the inevitable grandfather clauses to allow some old factories to continue polluting because it is not economical to retrofit them.

Instead, the market makes decisions about which plants install potentially costly control systems to limit carbon emissions, which ones do not, and which ones simply shut down. Companies make individual decisions on what, if any, controls are economical for individual factories based on the price set for carbon allowances by the national auction.

by William Neikirk

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has a plan for combating global warming. He would slap a 50-cent per gallon tax on gasoline, end the mortgage tax deduction for so-called "McMansions," and tax and put a cap on carbon dioxide emissions.

Proposals by a single congressman are usually not so noteworthy, but Dingell happens to be the powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and accustomed to getting his way in Congress.

But the question is whether the House Democratic Leadership will go this far. He and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are often at odds on energy policy. But when Congress comes back this fall, legislation to combat climate change will be considered by the House.

He outlined his ideas in a town hall meeting in Ann Arbor Tuesday, according to a story in today's Detroit Free Press.