Reid, Ensign back opposing proposals

WASHINGTON -- If the two senators from Nevada are any indication, Congress is unlikely to agree anytime soon on legislation to give U.S. consumers relief from skyrocketing gasoline prices.

Nevertheless, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hopes to bring a Democratic energy plan up for a vote before the Memorial Day recess.

The plan unveiled Wednesday would leave no room for compromise with a proposal by Republicans, Reid said.

"We are not about to compromise on (drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska), and that's basically all they have," Reid said at a news conference with other Democratic leaders.

Just moments earlier, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., flanked by other Republican leaders, stepped up to the same microphone and charged the Democratic plan would raise taxes on U.S. oil companies.

"When was the last time -- just ask yourselves -- that you taxed something and you got more of it?" Ensign asked.

Gasoline prices would go down "overnight," Ensign said, if stock market speculators knew the United States would drill in Alaska and on the outer continental shelf, including the Gulf of Mexico.

"If we want to provide relief to the American consumer today, we need to have more supply of our own natural resources right here in America and less dependence on foreign oil," Ensign said.

This can be done in an "environmentally sensible" way, Ensign added without providing details.

But Reid said the United States, including resources in Alaska and in the outer continental shelf, has less than 3 percent of the world's oil supply.

"We cannot produce our way out of the problems that we have," Reid said.

The Democratic plan includes a provision to suspend the underground storage of between 70,000 and 80,000 barrels of oil a day in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is 97 percent full.

The suspension would continue until December and storage could resume when the 90-day price of crude oil is back to $75 or less.

Reid hedged when asked whether he would consider offering the popular Strategic Petroleum Reserve provision without more controversial parts of the Democratic plan.

"We're looking at all of our options," Reid said. "We just think that what we have now is a package that will directly lower the price of gasoline both long term and short term, and take a whack at the oil companies that really need to be looked at very closely."

Reid planned to release the Democratic energy plan last week but postponed the announcement until after Tuesday's presidential primaries in Indiana and Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, Reid told CNN the plan does not call for a holiday of the federal gasoline tax because "we're not going to interject ourselves in the presidential election."

Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and John McCain, R-Ariz., support the federal gasoline tax holiday. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., opposes it.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Tony Batt at tbatt @stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.