WASHINGTON — Fearing public ire over rising gasoline prices, Republicans on Thursday unveiled a series of proposals aimed at giving consumers some relief, including a $100 rebate.
Democrats derided the GOP plan, and its political chances appeared weak.
The Democrats said that although the package incorporated some ideas they already had introduced, it contained a provision that almost assuredly would torpedo its passage: opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, a measure that repeatedly has stalled in Congress.
"Joining a rebate for consumers with [the drilling proposal] is not, I believe, a sincere effort," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).
Emotion over fuel costs ran high on Capitol Hill, illustrated by a five-hour filibuster staged by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). He refused to leave the Senate floor in an effort -- ultimately unsuccessful -- to press for a vote on forcing oil companies to pay more to the government for the right to drill for oil on public land. Some of that drilling is exempt from payments.
"Government subsidies may be needed when the price is low, when we have to simulate production," Wyden said. But such relief is uncalled for "at a time when prices are soaring to record-high levels."
By the end of the day, the two parties essentially played to a draw -- neither the rebate idea nor Democratic proposals, which include a moratorium on federal gasoline taxes, appeared to have much chance of becoming law.
But the theatrics made clear that each party wanted to demonstrate its sensitivity to rising prices -- and wanted to direct public anger toward the opposing camp.
At an outdoor news conference with the Capitol dome as a backdrop, Republicans blamed the price surge on Democrats, who they said had blocked measures to increase oil production, such as drilling in the Arctic.
"Those who stand up and criticize ... and suggest that somehow or another that the blame [for gasoline costs] is upon those of us who had been pushing for increased supply of energy in this country, I think they need to look in the mirror," said Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), chairman of a GOP task force that drew up the party's proposals. "Democrats are the ones who have simply blocked every attempt for us to build transmission networks -- whether it's electric transmission networks, or whether it's oil and gas networks, or whether it's energy generating, or whether it's oil and gas production."
