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To: Richard Mazzarella who wrote (50330)	3/13/2000 8:42:00 AM
From: long-gone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116759

Will Clinton-Gore Change Oil Policy? By Lawrence Morahan CNS Staff Writer 13 March, 2000 (CNSNews.com) - While steadily increasing gas prices are bringing environmentalists and free market advocates together to take a closer look at the U.S. government's involvement in influencing oil production and the high tax revenues it reaps at the pump one source where it can be changed is resistant to the idea - the Clinton-Gore Administration. Some observers believe President Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore are intent on adhering to the Kyoto environmental protocols, which is said to be costing the American consumer more and more money each month. Some economists are asking why Clinton continues to maintain the tax on imported oil when it was originally placed there in 1993 to help reduce the deficit. With the deficit down, the need for the tax is being called into question and instead may now be damaging to the economy. Myron Ebell, director of Global Warming Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told CNSNews.com that the Clinton-Gore Administration should lower the price of gas by taking away the federal tax and by opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Already this week two resolutions are before the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate calling for Clinton to immediately draw down the Strategic Petroleum Reserves in hopes of lowering fuel prices in America. Recent dramatic political developments in Norway are but one example of what could be in store for governments that insist on enforcing costly environmental policies whose worth is not proven. The minority centrist government of Norway resigned last Friday after a vote of no confidence in parliament. The government had insisted that no power plants be built until technological advances made it possible to produce power without also producing carbon dioxide, in keeping with the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. "What they said is that meeting the power demands of their people is more important than meeting Kyoto. This is a huge blow to Kyoto," Ebell told CNSNews.com. Currently Norway receives all of its electricity from hydropower but demand is increasing and consequently the majority in parliament felt they had to go with natural gas. Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., told CNSNews.com the U.S. government could make a start in amending its oil policies by dropping the oil embargo against Iraq, which she says has proven to be ineffective to the West, severely crippled the country's economy and instead harmed citizens and not Saddam Hussein, its intended target. "Repairing Iraq's oil infrastructure will cost billions. Until it does repair that it's not going to be able to produce enough oil. The oil that's sold under the Oil for Food Program is sold at world prices. The smuggled oil is sold at prices substantially less than the going price precisely because it's illegal," said Bennis. "The solution lies in a U.S. decision to lift the economic sanctions that have not only failed to do what the U.S. claims they would do - topple the regime of Saddam Hussein - but they succeeded in denying human beings the stuff of life," Bennis said. Despite all the complaints from motorists, some economists are claiming that current U.S. gas prices are still only about as high as they were in the early 1970's when adjusted for inflation. But in what is being touted as a "booming economy" gas prices have almost doubled since last winter to the highest pump price on record. (cont) conservativenews.org\Enviro\archive\ENV20000313c.html