English’s plan targets gas prices

The congressman outlined his plan to reduce gas prices.

STAFF REPORT

HERMITAGE, Pa. — People need relief from high gas prices now, says a U.S. congressman, and he’s proposing a plan to accomplish that.

“Of course we need a long-term energy strategy,” said U.S. Rep. Phil English, R-3rd, as he stood by the gas pumps Tuesday outside a Sheetz store here. That’s still no excuse, he said, for not having a short-term plan to reduce gas prices. His plan would bring more fuel to the market, he said, which will help bring the cost down.

“The average person who works at Sheetz can’t afford to fill their tanks,” he said. “Congress can’t look the other way.”

English said he is going to push the Affordable Fuel for Consumers Act through as quickly as he can.

The bill should be bipartisan, he said, calling it “very straightforward. Nothing pads oil companies’ profits.”

An incentive in the bill would allow companies who want to expand their refinery capacity to write it off their taxes if they do the expansion by 2012. More capacity will help relieve tight gasoline supplies, he said.

A second incentive would create an investment tax credit for oil shale extraction. Companies also would get a credit for buying the equipment to do the extraction. The technology doesn’t scar land and is less damaging to the environment, English said.

“We have under the Rockies 800 billion recoverable barrels of oil,” he said.

There are eight other parts to his plan. They are:

UGetting the president to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until oil prices come down. “We’re in a time of shortage, with limited production and higher demand,” he said. “Why fill the reserve when oil is hitting $120 a barrel?”

UReducing boutique fuels, which are fuels that are mixed differently according to air quality standards in different regions of the country. For example, English explained, gas made in Ohio can’t be sold in Pennsylvania because standards in the two states are not the same. “If you didn’t have to have a different fuel mix, you’d be able to move fuel around more efficiently,” he said. “You’d have a more efficient market.”

URepealing anti-trust exemption for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies. That would make it illegal for foreign entities to limit production and distribution of petroleum products or fix prices for them. It would prohibit those entities from restraining petroleum trade if it has a substantial effect on the market, supply, price or distribution in the United States.

UCalling for a study on the effectiveness of the nation’s energy supply, limitations of the energy infrastructure, artificial shortages, supply problems and higher costs. The study also would compare regional differences in supply and costs and the reasons for the differences.

URolling back the federal gasoline tax. “Why should we add 18-plus cents when people can’t afford it now?” English said.

UAllowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — or ANWAR — in Alaska.

UAllowing offshore drilling at the Outer Continental Shelf. “We could drill at ANWAR with a very small footprint,” he said, “and on the continental shelf and it would not be an environmental threat under modern standards.”

UProhibiting the exportation of Alaskan North Slope crude oil. The oil should be “for our consumption,” he said.