By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-719532.mp3
Houston, TX – As oil prices rise to all time highs, Texas Republicans at their state convention in Houston are proposing solutions. KERA's Shelley Kofler is covering the convention and has more on what is becoming the number one issue this election year.
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As Texas Republicans meet in Houston the price of regular gas in Texas edges closer to $4 a gallon.
No question in Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich's mind. The anger of American motorists is rising with the price at the pump.
Gingrich: The reason gasoline is going to be such a big issue this summer is when people stand there to fill up their tank they got 3to 5 minutes to get really mad and they do that several times a week and they get madder every week.
As Chairman of the advocacy group American Solutions, Gingrich is proposing some shock therapy to drive down gas prices. He wants Washington to immediately sell off half of the nations strategic petroleum reserves, the world's largest emergency supply of crude oil.
Gingrich: To do it suddenly to do it without telling anybody in advance and to punish every speculator who has been speculating against America by driving down the price of oil for the next six months.
Gingrich claims that would buy Congress enough time to take more permanent steps to lower oil prices.
On stage at the convention, US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison like Gingrich called on Congress to lift a ban on drilling in numerous places now off-limits.
Hutchison: We want to drill for oil in ANWR. There's enough oil in ANWR to replace all our imports from Saudi Arabia. We want to drill for oil along the Outer Contential shelf.
Texas Senator John Cornyn goes along with that.
Cornyn: If Congress sent a signal that no we've changed now that gasoline is four dollars a gallon. I believe that would calm the speculation that is driving up the cost of oil and gasoline.
But Cornyn says Gingrich's idea of selling off the Strategic
Reserves would make the US vulnerable in an emergency.
Congressman Michael Burgess of Lewisville, a member of the house Energy Committee, says selling the reserve would only produce 2 or 3 months of relief. He suggests a reform package that includes the immediate building of refineries and a rollback of the 24-cent excise tax on diesel fuel.
Burgess: When a trucker is having to pay 12-1500 dollars to fill up their rig to make their run saving 25 cents a gallon is going to make a significant difference.
Texas Republicans like Cornyn hope their party's Presidential nominee John McCain will eventually support some of the oil production policies they advocate. In the U.S. Senate McCain has voted against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Whatever the long term solution to oil pricing, Republican candidates in Texas seem to recognize the need for a short term solution. One that will ease voters ire before they cast ballots in November.
Shelley Kofler KERA News