Merkley: Gas plan to offer savings

The 76 gas station in southeast Portland, where a gallon of regular gas is going for $4.04, was the site where Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) was to announce his plans lower the price of gas on Tuesday.

According to the numbers Merkley crunched, the average Oregonian will spend $660 more on gas this year than last year. But Merkley believes that through a number of initiatives, including making oil companies drill on the land they have already leased and ending excessive oil speculation, and tax credits for families struggling to deal with oil prices.

Merkley, the Oregon state House speaker, said that ending oil speculation -- which his rival, U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Pendleton), voted against in a Senate vote on Friday -- would have the biggest, most immediate impact on fuel prices, which are currently hovering just above $4 per gallon in Oregon.

“The impact at the pumps would happen virtually immediately,” Merkley said in an exclusive interview with PolitickerOR.com. “Some experts say that the core price now should be around $50 to $60 per barrel. But right now this is a market in which transactions can be hidden from the public view, and that is completely inappropriate.”

Merkley is also calling on oil companies to drill on the land they have already been leased, rather than lobby for the ability to drill offshore. Smith has also come out against offshore drilling, as have the three West Coast governors; Oregon’s Ted Kulongoski, California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger and Washington’s Chris Gregorie.

“They’re sitting on 68 million acres, and they’re not utilizing that,” Merkley said. “It is unfair for them to tie up that land and not use it.”

Merkley also proposed to offer financial relief to families struggling under rising fuel costs. Under Merkley’s plan a family could earn as much as $450 in financial assistance to offset the cost of fuel. Merkley has also extended assistance to small business truckers, who could qualify for a tax credit of up to $4,000.

According to numbers released by Merkley, truckers have to pay an average of $110,000 per year in fuel costs. It makes the $4,000 seem like a drop in the bucket. But, as he believes, you have to start somewhere.

“It’s a very modest attempt to assist them,” he said.