May 2, 2008

Proposals to slash gas prices abound in White House race

Get rid of the federal gas tax — at least for the summer. Tax Big Oil to help the rest of us out. Get drilling in that Alaska refuge. Soaring gasoline prices are suddenly the nation's No. 1 crisis, and all the presidential candidates are offering cures.

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"These are almost identical to proposals that were made in 1973 and 1974 when I was working for Hubert Humphrey on energy. There's nothing new there and there's no free lunch," said James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University.

"Unless people running for office are willing to have a fundamental change in the way we produce energy and use it, we'll continue to have these problems. And they'll only get worse in the future. And none of these proposals will do anything to stop the current problem," Thurber said.


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