Reid seeks to pressure GOP on energy bill

Ahead of a cloture vote Tuesday on a Democratic energy bill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sought to pressure Republicans into supporting the measure.

“Last week, Republicans took to the floor to speak about high gas prices. I hope this is a sign that they are finally ready to back their rhetoric with action,” Reid said on the floor. “This week they will have that chance.”

{mosads}Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hit back and called the measure  “irresponsible.”

Each party is trying to pin the blame for high gas prices on the other, hoping to gain an advantage in the fall election as Americans are increasingly feeling the pain at the pump.

“When President Bush took office in 2001, a barrel of oil cost $32 and a gallon of gasoline cost about $1.50. Then, the president took us into a war of choice in Iraq, and Vice President Cheney invited oil executives to the White House to secretly write our national energy legislation,” Reid said.

“They never asked the oil executives to build new refineries or to invest in clean, renewable alternative fuels,” he added. “They apparently failed to consider the national security implications of our addiction to oil, and never asked the oil companies to invest in clean energy we can grow right here in America.”

However, McConnell noted in his floor speech that “Americans have lost patience with Democrat inaction on gas prices.

“Americans understand supply and demand,” the GOP leader said. “They know the only way to drive prices down is to drive production up here at home and by reducing demand through the kind of sensible action we took last year on fuel efficiency and renewable fuels.”

The cloture vote is expected to fail, but Reid said he hopes that $4-a-gallon gasoline has caused Republican senators to reach a “tipping point” and vote for the bill, components of which have been offered several times in the House and Senate since Democrats took control of Congress.

“Today, Republicans will have a simple choice: Will they continue to stand with Bush, Cheney and the modern-day oil barons?” he said. “Or will they join us on the side of struggling American families who deserve better?”

The measure would take on oil companies by taxing “windfall” profits and mandating that some of their profits must be invested in alternative energy. Republicans strongly criticize the bill as a gimmick.

“Hitting the gas companies might make for good campaign literature or evening news clips, but it won’t address the problem,” McConnell said. “This bill isn’t a serious response to high gas prices. It’s a gimmick. And don’t just take my word for it. The Democrats themselves said as much when their leadership first proposed this sham solution last month.”

McConnell blasted the idea of a windfall tax.

“If the idea had any merit at all, Republicans would consider it. It doesn’t. We know it from experience,” McConnell said. “Jimmy Carter tried a Windfall Profits Tax in 1980, and it was a miserable failure. The Congressional Research Service says its only effect was to depress domestic production, thus significantly increasing our reliance on foreign oil.”

The measure would also seek to “protect the American people from price gougers and greedy oil traders who manipulate the market,” Reid stated, and aims to prevent OPEC from keeping prices high.

“I have said before that the Consumer First Energy Act is not a silver bullet that will solve our energy crisis overnight,” Reid said, adding that “the American people deserve to know the truth, that the road ahead will not be easy.”

However, the Democratic leader said, the measure “is a start” that would help lower prices.