WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas) this year tried to win approval of a measure to make it easier to build oil refineries but was thwarted by environmental opposition.
Then Hurricane Katrina hit, shutting down Gulf Coast refineries and helping drive gasoline prices to record highs. So Barton is looking to revive his refinery measure in the belief that it will now stand a better chance of getting through Congress.
"If there is a silver lining [to the disaster], and I'm not saying that there is, but if there is, it may be that our country is beginning to realize how fragile our energy sector is," he said.
Proposals such as Barton's are gaining new life as lawmakers from as far from the Gulf Coast as California and Massachusetts use a political climate suddenly altered by the hurricane to try to advance long-stalled, sometimes controversial initiatives.
For example, Katrina is being invoked in efforts to secure tax relief for the airline industry, disaster aid for farmers and energy assistance for low-income families in the Northeast.
The maneuvering is raising concern among fiscal conservatives who fear that lawmakers will go beyond what's necessary to respond to the disaster, adding to the strain the hurricane already is causing on the budget deficit.
"The levees in New Orleans weren't the only levees that broke," said Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of Capitol Hill's staunchest fiscal conservatives.
One budget watchdog called the bipartisan stampede to promote causes and projects in Katrina's name "the political equivalent of ambulance chasing."
"There is no doubt that the coming string of emergency spending bills will spawn a cottage industry of lobbyists trying to get funding for anything that can be remotely related to Katrina ... from water projects far from the Gulf Coast to first-responder aid in low-threat areas," said Robert Bixby, head of the Concord Coalition.
The airline industry has asked Congress to suspend fuel taxes for one year, a request that, if granted, would cost the government $600 million.
Those promoting the relief stress the significant rise in fuel costs since the hurricane, triggered by the damage to Gulf Coast oil rigs and refineries.
"For the airlines, the saying 'It is always darkest before the storm' is reversed," James C. May, president and chief executive of the Air Transport Assn., said in written testimony to a Senate committee last week.
