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Arkansas lawmakers oppose gas tax 'holiday' Thursday, Apr 24, 2008 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Arkansas lawmakers say a proposed gasoline tax "holiday" for this summer is going nowhere and instead Wednesday offered their own plans to lower record-high gas prices. Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has proposed Congress suspend collection of the 18.4 cent per-gallon fuel tax between Memorial Day and Labor Day as temporary relief from gas prices approaching $4 a gallon. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., called McCain's plan bad policy. Federal fuel taxes go to build new highways, so cutting back means less money for roads, he said. Even the congressional delegation's lone Republican and McCain supporter, Rep. John Boozman, said the plan should not be a priority. A tax holiday fails to address the core issue of inadequate energy supplies, Boozman said. "It's a supply-and-demand thing at this point," he said. Boozman, along with Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, supports expanded offshore oil exploration and energy drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Pryor said he and other senators are negotiating a measure to regulate the oil futures market. He offered few details about the pending bill. Pryor and other Democrats see market manipulation - where speculators buy up oil shares only to inflate demand - as one reason crude oil prices are at a record high. "There is a lot of speculation on the market," Pryor said. "A lot of money is tied up trying to play investment games with oil prices." Other lawmakers have called for a Justice Department investigation into market manipulation. Some relief may come in the new Farm Bill, which gives federal regulators greater oversight of the commodities futures trade, said Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. "There's no reason that people in high rises in New York should be making money off hard-working families," Lincoln said. Though House and Senate negotiators are at a stalemate over tax provisions of the broad farm reauthorization, Lincoln said she expects an agreement soon. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Pryor both signed on to a letter asking President Bush to suspend for a year stockpiling of oil in the strategic petroleum reserve. That oil should be on the market until the price of oil drops below $75 per barrel, they said. But Pryor said he does not expect any help for consumers as long as President Bush is in office. Since both the president and Vice President Cheney are former oil company executives, Pryor said he thinks Bush would veto any bill that would jeopardize Big Oil's profits. "I think we have to be realistic about it," he said. "Gas prices are not going to go down as long as President Bush is president." The president and Congress should work together to create a plan to use alternative energy like nuclear, solar and wind power, Boozman said. "We're the only developed country in the world that refuses to use its natural resources," Boozman added. "It's very difficult short-term to get down the price of gas without increasing energy." |
