Here's Some Important News, Repug

Unlike popular oppinion, President Bush isn't a complete moron and attempts to solve problems through the market place (which works) rather than around it (which doesn't). You can't mandate gas prices, yet Democrats never seem to learn the lesson. Anyways, here's the article:

Bush Agrees to Halt Deposits
To Strategic Petroleum Reserve
By HENRY J. PULIZZI
April 25, 2006 1:28 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Tuesday that he has ordered the Department of Energy to stop filling the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, part of the administration's broad plan to tackle rising gasoline prices and stop possible price gouging.

"The strategic reserve is sufficiently large enough to guard against any major supply disruption over the next few months," Mr. Bush said in a speech to a renewable-fuels group. "By deferring deposits until the fall, we'll leave a little more oil on the markets. Every little bit helps."


Light sweet crude for June delivery fell 53 cents to $72.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, following a sharp decline in gasoline futures, which dropped eight cents to $2.10 a gallon, after Mr. Bush's remarks.

With prices at the pump around $3 a gallon ahead of the summer driving season and November's Congressional elections, the White House is under pressure from the public and lawmakers to ease rising prices. Mr. Bush, who has received letters from Democratic and Republican lawmakers this week requesting action, ordered the Department of Justice and the Department of Energy in the last few days to investigate potential illegal manipulation of gasoline markets.

"This administration is not going to tolerate manipulation," Mr. Bush said.

That probe is part of the White House's four-part strategy to address the issue in the short- and long-term. The plan's components: making sure consumers and tax payers are treated fairly; promoting greater fuel efficiency; boosting domestic gasoline supply; and investing in alternative energy.

One of the short-term measures Mr. Bush advocated Tuesday to help get gasoline into filling stations is allowing the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive local fuel requirements to ease concerns over a switch in fuel blends, particularly a transition from MTBE to ethanol as the main ingredient in reformulated gas.

"I'm directing EPA Administrator [Stephen L.] Johnson to use all his available authority to grant waivers that would relieve critical fuel supply shortages," Mr. Bush said. "And I do that for the sake of our consumers. If Johnson finds that he needs more authority to relieve the problem, we're going to work with Congress to obtain the authority he needs."

Mr. Bush also asked Mr. Johnson to form a task force to explore ways to reduce the number of localized fuel blends, or boutique fuels, and boost cooperation between states.

Tax Breaks?

Another piece of the White House's energy plan is encouraging energy companies to reinvest profits. "At record prices, these energy companies have got large cash flows, and they need to reinvest those cash flows into expanding refining capacity or researching alternative energy sources or developing new technologies or expanding production in environmentally-friendly ways," Mr. Bush said.

At the same time, those companies don't need to benefit from tax breaks, Mr. Bush said, pointing to write-offs of certain geological and geophysical expenditures and subsidies for deep-water drilling research. Mr. Bush said he wants Congress to eliminate $2 billion of tax breaks from the federal budget over 10 years.

"Congress has got to understand that these energy companies don't need unnecessary tax breaks," Mr. Bush said.

Consumers, however, should receive more tax breaks as incentives to use less energy and help cure what Mr. Bush repeatedly calls the nation's "addiction" to oil. Lawmakers, the president said, should make all hybrid and clean-diesel vehicles sold this year eligible for federal tax credits.

The president's ideas for the energy situation quickly attracted criticism from democrats and interest groups. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said Mr. Bush needs to provide relief for consumers "as soon as possible."

"The current national energy policy is clearly not working for all Americans, especially those who can least afford it," the senators said in a letter to Mr. Bush.

Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Bush, "still suffering under the sad delusion that America is addicted to oil, seems to have forgotten that his policies would, if enacted, lead to increased energy supplies and lower prices over the next few years."

Pushing Measures

In his speech Tuesday, Mr. Bush returned to some of the mainstays of his administration's energy policies, including the frequent call for an expansion of domestic oil refining capacity and drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The most recent effort to open ANWR failed last year when House Democrats and dozens of House Republicans rejected the White House-backed plan and last-minute efforts to pass ANWR as part of a must-pass military spending bill were rejected in the Senate.

"I fully recognize that the passage of ANWR will not increase the oil supply immediately," Mr. Bush said. "But it's also important to understand that if ANWR had been law a decade ago, America would be producing about a million additional barrels of oil a day, and that would increase our current level of domestic supply by 20%."

Over the long-term, Mr. Bush said the U.S. needs to boost the use of ethanol, improve hybrid vehicles and develop hydrogen technology.

"Ethanol is a versatile fuel, and the benefits are...easy to recognize, when you think about it," Mr. Bush said, calling ethanol good for the agricultural sector and the environment.

Also Tuesday, the White House released a letter from FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to all 50 state attorneys general, urging the officials to "enforce vigorously" state laws against anti-competitive behavior.

"Working together, the federal government and the states can ensure that we address swiftly and appropriately any unlawful conduct resulting in artificial price spikes," the letter said.

Write to Henry J. Pulizzi at [email protected]