After hurricane, the divide deepens
WASHINGTON -- Despite cries for greater conservation and automobile fuel efficiency to deal with the post-Katrina energy crunch, key Republicans are instead pointing to the crisis as a reason to increase production and ease environmental rules some believe limit the flow of gasoline to consumers.
House Republican leaders are discussing a plan to give new incentives to energy companies to produce more oil and gas, beyond the billions in grants and tax breaks approved in July, while Democrats are demanding federal penalties for price-gouging and a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
The battle highlights a sharp ideological divide over energy that has been exacerbated by the hurricane crisis, and lawmakers say the parties' fundamentally different approaches to the role of government are not likely to be reconciled as Congress debates how to help motorists suffering at the pump.
''That's where you've got some very serious partisan divisions," said John Pitney, a congressional specialist and professor at Claremont McKenna College in California. ''You've got some conservatives saying this is why we need to relax environmental regulations. You've got liberals saying it was the failure to sign the Kyoto protocol" aimed at limiting emissions, such as from automobiles, that deplete the ozone layer and cause global warming.
Concluded Pitney: ''They have very different views of the world."
The situation on Capitol Hill is markedly different than that after the Sept. 11 attacks, when the crisis brought Congress together in near-unanimity on a response plan. The resolution authorizing war in Afghanistan was approved with overwhelming support, and even the now-contentious USA Patriot Act giving new search and seizure powers to law enforcement won the support of most Democrats.
But Hurricane Katrina -- while provoking a flurry of legislative proposals on Capitol Hill -- has brought no such unity on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are bickering over how to handle energy, economic development, housing, and welfare for storm victims.
Republicans immediately suggested a tax-cut package to alleviate the crisis, while Democrats demanded relief in the form of a higher minimum wage and a government fund to pay for reconstruction. Republicans want to drill in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, while environmentalists and most Democrats hope to protect that land.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, quickly unveiled a relief package that includes such items as disaster unemployment insurance, funding for school districts in the disaster zone, and looser rules for distributing existing aid for programs like Head Start.
Republicans, meanwhile, have asked for economic enterprise zones to spur private development.
''It's the difference between an act of God and an act of war," said Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, referring to the disparate responses to the attacks and Hurricane Katrina. If Republicans succeed in fostering private development in the region -- including home ownership as well as commercial development -- the hurricane victims, many of whom were poor, might end up being better off than they were before the storm, he said.
''But if we simply come back with public solutions, they'll find themselves in the same situation," Pence said.
Democrats have complained that the federal government response was slow and inadequate, and say the natural disaster is an occasion to show what government can do to help its citizens.
On housing, GOP and some Democratic lawmakers are discussing giving vouchers to displaced people to help them pay for a place to live. But Democrats are pushing for a broader program to build new housing. ''If all you do is vouchers, you are increasing the demand for housing without increasing the supply of housing," said Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton.
On energy, environmentalists are starting to see some movement among Republicans for a change in so-called CAFE standards, the rules that dictate how many miles per gallon cars and light trucks such as SUVs must get.
Senator Pete V. Domenici, Republican of New Mexico and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, this week said CAFE standards -- which were not addressed in the energy bill approved this summer -- merited a second look. But Domenici, along with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton, both Texas Republicans, said they also wanted to increase refinery capacity, do more offshore drilling and open the Alaskan refuge to oil exploration.
While people are unhappy with high gas prices, they don't want to give up their SUVs, Barton said, and forcing the automobile industry to meet higher miles-per-gallon standards ''is not a good policy if you want to stay in the majority," he said.
Barton said market pressures would force automakers to produce more fuel-efficient cars, if consumers were ultimately unwilling to pay more to fill their SUV tanks. But he maintained that oil companies should get government subsidies to drill, noting that even ExxonMobil -- which Barton said was poised to ''report the world's largest net profit ever" in its next quarterly report -- did not want to spend the cash to explore for more oil.
