Nevadans feeling strain of high gas prices

Kirsten Searer

Wednesday, May 26, 2004 | 8:57 a.m.

Single mom Arlene Cooper has started to leave her air conditioning off when she drives alone in her Honda Accord.

"The cost of gas is killing me, it's actually eating me alive," said Cooper, who said she fills up often to drive her special needs children to doctor appointments and therapy sessions around Las Vegas.

Local families and businesses are struggling in Nevada, where gas prices are among the highest in the nation, local Democrats said Tuesday at a news conference that blamed President Bush for much of the problem.

Bush could do more to ease rising gas costs by working with oil companies, said Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas.

"It's not uncommon for the president to pull businesses into the Oval Office and cajole, if necessary," he said.

Bush promised during the 2000 presidential campaign that he'd be able to prevent oil-exporting countries from limiting production to keep prices high, saying he'd get on the phone with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and "jawbone" them into increased production and lowered prices.

Yet Republicans respond that John Kerry has voted to raise gas taxes and is opposed to President Bush's plan to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Rising gas prices could be a factor in this year's tight presidential election, especially in Nevada, where prices are among the highest in the country.

According to a national poll released Monday by CBS News, 58 percent of Americans think the president "can do a lot" about the price of gasoline.

Yet Americans seem uncertain about whether Bush affects or Kerry can affect gas prices. The poll found that 51 percent of Americans said gas prices will "stay the same" if Kerry is elected president, compared with 46 percent of people who said gas prices will stay stagnant if Bush is reelected.

Erik Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said much of the dialogue in both campaigns is just political posturing.

Ultimately, he said, the president has little control over gas costs, especially in the short term.

Prices at the pump really result from a variety of factors, from the growing demand for gas in China to instability in the Middle East and a lack of oil refineries in the United States, Herzik said.

"None of these are issues that the President can command," he said.

Still, he admitted that if he were a Democratic strategist, he would "remind voters how high gas prices are and that George Bush comes out of the oil industry."

At the news conference local Democrats held Tuesday, they held red gasoline cans and asked Americans to "Can Bush."

Las Vegas small business owner Todd Pike said he might spend thousands to install a diesel-powered engine in one of his work trucks. His monthly gas bill has doubled from $1,000 to $2,000 a month in the past 18 months, he said.

"It's dipping into our bottom line," said Pike, an underground piping contractor.

The Democrats also touted Kerry's own energy plan, which he announced Tuesday in Oregon, as a way to cut gas costs.

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, said that the average Nevada family pays $479 more a year for gas than it did when President Bush took office.

And Clark County families pay even more -- an average of $564 more per year at the gas pump, he said.

"This actually overshadows any benefit of a tax decrease," Care said.

Kerry's plan would emphasize the use of more alternative or renewable resources, provide a $4,000 tax credit for people who buy vehicles that use alternative forms of energy, tap into the nation's energy reserve and improve energy conservation.

Kerry also would continue to oppose drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Care argued Tuesday that oil companies' bottom lines are soaring under Bush, who, he said, is doing little to curb company greed.

According to charts posted by the Democrats, profit at Exxon-Mobil is up 125 percent, British Petroleum profit is up 165 percent and Chevron Texaco profit is up 294 percent.

"These numbers have a human toll," Care said.

But Republican National Committee spokesman Yier Shi said Kerry's plan wouldn't ensure a reliable energy supply, which President Bush's energy bill seeks to do.

Bush's bill would modernize the country's energy infrastructure to ensure it is being used efficiently, introduce renewable and alternative sources of energy, and reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil, partly by drilling in the controversial Arctic refuge.

Kerry has opposed the bill, which passed the House but has not cleared the Senate, Shi said.

"President Bush is doing everything he can to make sure gasoline prices are lower, but it requires a number of factors, mainly a reliable energy supply, which is what the energy bill would do," Shi said.

On Friday, a House subcommittee on Energy Police, National Resources and Regulatory Affairs will hold a special meeting in Las Vegas to talk about increasing gas prices in Nevada, California and Arizona.

The subcommittee meeting, which Reps. Jon Porter, R-Nev., and Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., plan to attend, will focus on factors that affect the gasoline supply.

In a press release announcing the hearing, Gibbons pointed to the gas crisis as a reason to pass a new energy policy.

"This hearing will reiterate the fact that it is time for our nation to have a comprehensive energy policy to ensure we can continue to meet our growing energy demands," he said.