Nathan Deal
Zach Wamp
Bob Corker

WASHINGTON -- Many of the proposals hotly debated in Congress to relieve pain at the pump -- from investing in alternative fuels to drilling for more oil offshore -- likely won't bear fruit for years, maybe even decades.

But Tennessee and Georgia lawmakers say that passing a bill now would send the signals to oil speculators that likely would cause an immediate drop in gas prices.

"Even just starting would lower prices," said U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn. "The global market would see that we're in business."

The futures markets are based on expectations, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

"Truly, the biggest thing we can do in the short term to impact prices is to send a strong message to the markets that we're going to reduce consumption through conservation and increasing (energy) supply," he said.

Congress may be coming closer to an agreement on what those strategies ought to include.

For months, Democrats largely have remained focused on mandating conservation measures and encouraging investments in alternative fuels and efficiency, while Republicans mostly have favored increasing oil production by exploring on the outer continental shelf, in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and in western areas with oil shale.

But with gas topping $4 a gallon, a bipartisan group of 10 senators, including Sens. Corker; Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.; and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., is meeting to draft legislation aimed at providing relief at the pump.

The five Democrats and five Republicans have called on their respective party leaders to convene an energy summit to hear from experts and academics as they prepare their legislation.

"A summit like that, just having people talk about the realities of offshore production or the realities of wind and solar (energy), would be very productive," Sen. Corker said.

Sen. Chambliss said gas prices have been the No. 1 topic of concern among his constituents. The bipartisan summit is a chance for Congress to show it will not "play politics" with the issue, he noted.

"This is a complex issue, but we cannot shy away from action," Sen. Chambliss said. "We must come together to act now."

POLITICS AT PLAY

Politics, however, still rules the day in Congress, and as the November election nears, both parties have seized on high gas prices as a campaign talking point.

Republicans have targeted their Democratic colleagues, labeling them as "anti-drilling," while touting polls that show Americans are increasingly receptive to opening up offshore areas to oil exploration.

Senate Republicans unveiled their energy plan last month, calling for increasing offshore drilling, repealing a moratorium on oil exploration in oil shale reserves in Western states and investing in better batteries for plug-in hybrid cars.

"Our position can be summed up in four words: find more, use less," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who holds the party's No. 3 leadership post in the Senate and has criticized Democratic opposition to the plan as "Obamanomics."

"We can find one-third more oil than we now produce, and we can do that by deep sea exploration and western oil shales," he said. "And then we would use one-third less than we import. We'd do that by making plug-in cars commonplace."

Democrats, meanwhile, have attacked Republicans as being over-reliant on drilling, which they say would do nothing to reduce consumption and help the environment, unlike investments in wind and solar power. Democrats also say oil companies hold plenty of leases on offshore areas -- 68 million acres -- for oil drilling but have yet to use them.

"Instead of calling on Congress to hand over even more American land and resources to the oil industry, President Bush should tell his friends to start drilling in the land they already have," Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

But some Democrats, including Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., are at odds with their party leadership on oil drilling and favor opening more land and sea areas for oil exploration.

"Oil drilling will be a future asset to us," Rep. Davis said. "Anything we can do, which includes drilling, to bring down the price of oil, we should do it."

Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., said if President Clinton had not vetoed a bill to allow drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge in 1995, domestic oil supplies would be greater now, leading to lower prices.

He said he would support reducing or eliminating tariffs on imported ethanol, which he said not only drive up the price of the alternative fuel but also contribute to skyrocketing prices for corn, from which most domestically produced ethanol is derived.

Rep. Wamp said he plans to introduce a bill later this year that would provide owners of cars that get below 20 miles per gallon a $2,500 tax credit to trade in their vehicles for ones that get more than 30 miles per gallon.

"The people feeling the sting of high gas prices worse than anybody are people who are trapped with their vehicles," Rep. Wamp said. "The sooner we can help people, especially at the lower economic end, move to efficiency, the better off we're going to be."

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