Heating Oil Reserve Plan Stripped The Associated Press, Thu 28 Sep 2000 Email this story to a friend Print this story WASHINGTON (AP)  A plan to create a permanent emergency home heating oil reserve for Northeast states suffered a blow Thursday when it was stripped from a funding bill.

The provision that was removed from the energy and water projects bill also would have reauthorized the president's power to withdraw oil from the 600 million-barrel national Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

President Clinton said last week he would tap the reserve to drive down oil prices. Many Republicans, including presidential candidate George W. Bush, opposed the move, saying the reserve only should be tapped in a national emergency.

Democrats said House Republicans were retaliating against Clinton by stripping the provision.

``The Republicans in Congress are fiddling around while people are about to freeze,'' said Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. ``This underscores the problem in the GOP leadership that they don't understand the heating oil crisis. To throw this provision out is a slap in the face to everyone from a state that relies on heating oil.''

Rep. Ron Packard, R-Calif., chairman of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, said the reserve provision was removed because matters dealing with fossil fuels were the jurisdiction of a different panel handling Interior Department spending.

And because Clinton has said he plans to establish a Northeast reserve on his own, Republicans said it's unnecessary for Congress to do it.

``This doesn't prevent anything from happening,'' said Melissa Carlson, a Packard spokeswoman. ``There will still be a reserve in the Northeast.''

New England currently has five million barrels of oil available, a 60 percent drop from last year's inventory. The provision called for establishing a permanent reserve of two million gallons for New England, New York and New Jersey.

The American Petroleum Institute, which opposes a reserve, says it will further reduce supplies elsewhere, driving up prices.

Clinton has said he will use his authority set up a temporary reserve. But supporters of the permanent reserve say that won't ensure heating oil is quickly made available to the Northeast because it would require a national emergency to be tapped.

``Current law says you can release reserve oil when you have an energy supply disruption,'' White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said. ``What we would like is a trigger that's better suited to a regional supply shortage.''

Supporters of the permanent reserve say they will continue pressing the issue in Congress. Another bill now in the Senate has a Northeast reserve provision.

Advocates for the poor say they want assurances a heating reserve will be in place this winter.

``We need a reserve, and we need to know that people will have oil to heat their homes,'' said Marcial Cuevas, executive director of the Community Action Agency of New Haven, Conn.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 28, 2000

Answers

``The Republicans in Congress are fiddling around while people are about to freeze,'' said Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. ---- If the present administration had been doing it's job the last 8 YEARS and put its priorities in "the peoples best interests" instead of their "own self-gain" we wouldnt be running out of heating fuels and worrying about losing human lives - just my 2 cents worth.

-- Rilly Disapoynted (Inwyo2@aol.com), September 28, 2000.