N.C. delegation scrambles over high fuel prices

WASHINGTON - It cost Kevin Narron $500 in diesel fuel to truck a load of Eastern North Carolina barbecue to Congress this week and another $200 in propane to cook it, and he sure wishes the officials eating his 'cue Thursday would do something about high fuel prices.

There among the dining crowd was Democratic Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson, who wants to fine gas station owners $1 million for price gouging. And staff members of Republican Rep. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, who wants to open the Atlantic coast to natural gas drilling.

Narron, head caterer for Bill Ellis Barbecue of Wilson, was serving the luncheon for a group of North Carolina insurance agents in town for a conference. Such luncheons are common on Capitol Hill, low-key events where staffers and lawmakers get free food and constituents press their issues.

But high-priced fuel dominated many conversations.

"It's three times what it used to be in the last two years," Narron said as he kept watch over the buffet table.

Washington hears the pain. With gas prices about $3 a gallon, Exxon Mobil posting soaring profits and crude oil topping $70 a barrel, politicians are scrambling to respond. At least two North Carolina representatives were at an Agriculture Committee hearing on the issue Thursday. The state's congressional representatives are jumping aboard energy bills to fine gas station owners $1 million for gouging or to open the Atlantic coast to offshore natural gas drilling.

GOP Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole have links on the issue on their Web sites, Democratic Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill has an online letter to constituents on his and Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, brought up the question at a Science Committee hearing Thursday.

Also Thursday, Senate Republicans announced a plan to give $100 gas rebates to citizens, spend billions on alternative fuels research and open an Alaskan nature reserve to oil drilling.

All this while constituents wonder whether Congress has any power at all in the matter.

"I don't think they can do anything. A lot of it is supply and demand," said Jason Byers, an insurance agent from Charlotte who spent $110 to drive to Washington and back home this week.

Tom Crosby, spokesman for AAA Carolinas in Charlotte, sees the activity as little more than posturing.

"I think it's politics as usual, and they're making a political football out of something much more serious than a game," Crosby said. "Congress needs to be thinking long-term, not short-term."

The real problems, he said, are U.S. relationships with oil-rich countries such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Iraq and Iran.

A lot of the proposals getting ink have been around for a few months.

Burr, a Republican from Winston-Salem, co-sponsored a bill in October to reduce the number of specially blended "boutique fuels" on the market in an effort to stem spikes in prices.

The Senate energy committee, of which Burr is a member, is considering sweeping legislation put forward Thursday by GOP leaders. Burr's bill might become part of the mix in coming discussions.

Several Western North Carolina Republicans have signed onto legislation to open the Outer Continental Shelf in the Atlantic Ocean to natural gas exploration. They are Myrick and Reps. Virginia Foxx, Patrick McHenry and Charles Taylor.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Bob Etheridge of Lillington was an original co-sponsor last fall of another bill that tries to define price gouging. It would fine corporations $100 million and individuals $1 million.

Butterfield, Price and Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte have signed onto the bill. Democrats are trying to gather support for a parliamentary move to force a vote on the measure.

"People are beginning to understand this is a crisis," Butterfield said.

Over in Miller's Science Committee hearing, the issue was about using hydrogen. But Miller pushed for conservation and other alternative sources.

"The people in my district can't predict the price at the pump, in the morning, what it will be that afternoon," Miller said. "So, yes, we do have an immediate problem."

Constituents are thinking about the issue more and more.

Insurance agents Kathy and Gary Lance of Waynesville had to make a decision this week they had never considered before: Which car to drive to Washington.

Should they go with the roomy Chevy Suburban, at 10 miles to the gallon? Or the Volvo, which gets more than 20?

"We drove the Volvo," Kathy Lance said.