WP: Kerry to Unveil Plan to Reduce Gas Prices

Kerry to Unveil Plan to Reduce Gas Prices

By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 30, 2004; Page A04

....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....

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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....

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.... 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."...


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

"....Facing GOP attacks for advocating higher gas taxes as a senator"

Whether that attack has a basis in reality or not, their attacks get tacked on to every article on the Democrat. But, attacks on Repugs don't usually get tacked on to articles about their policies.