|
Franken outlines plan to cut energy costs
ST. PAUL -- Democratic Senate candidate Al Franken is calling for the immediate release of 50 million barrels of oil from the nation's strategic reserve. Franken, who spoke to reporters in front of gas pumps at a service station in Saint Paul, said prices fell 60 cents per gallon the last time President Bush released oil from the reserve after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He also called for an immediate crackdown on oil commodities speculation in stock markets, and took incumbent Republican Norm Coleman to task for voting against such a measure last Friday in Washington. "Amy Klobuchar voted for that bill," Franken remarked, "Norm Coleman cancelled out her vote and blocked it, thus proving once again that what he says here in Minnesota isn't always what he does in Washington." A Coleman campaign spokesman, Mark Drake, told reporters Senator Coleman voted against the speculation bill because it didn't also include expanded leases for offshore drilling. The drilling component was a trade-off Republicans wanted added to the anti-speculation bill. Drake said off-shore drilling is vital to bringing down costs in the long run, while Franken argues oil companies should expand drilling only in sections of the ocean floor already under lease. Franken calls the push for expanded off-shore leases as a solution for today's fuel price crisis a form of pandering, considering the federal government's own estimates that it will take a decade for those new installations to yield crude. Even then, many analyst say, it will have negligible impact on prices motorists pay because America's domestic supply represents only three percent of the oil on the global markets where prices are determined. "I'm talking about steps that can be taken immediately, in the short-term," Franken said. He's also like to see a $500 million boost in spending on the federal Weatherization Assistance Program for home insulation, to help homeowners brace against a huge spike in home heating costs predicted for this winter. Drake's counterattack cited Franken's past endorsement of the idea of raising fuel taxes to pay for bridges and roads. Franken made those statements when gasoline was well below $3 per gallon. "He said if prices come down again he'd put that gas tax back on the table," Drake said, "While Senator Coleman has made it clear he's against raising the gas tax at any time."
|
 MORE HEADLINES |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
