Copyright 2000 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha
World-Herald
March 22, 2000, Wednesday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18
LENGTH: 299 words
HEADLINE:
Grogan Slams OPEC, Clinton Over Oil Prices
BYLINE: C.
DAVID KOTOK
SOURCE: WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
BODY:
George Grogan tried to put his campaign for
the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in overdrive Tuesday by condemning the
leaders of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as ungrateful and greedy in forcing oil price
increases.
Grogan also said the Clinton administration has idled in
response to rising gas prices at the corner pump. Clinton has
no business being in India and Pakistan now, he said.
"Where should he
be?" Grogan said at an Omaha press conference. "He should be in Saudi Arabia,
saying, 'Why are Americans paying these prices?'"
Beyond harsh words,
Grogan did not suggest how the administration could put pressure on members of
OPEC to bring oil prices down.
He rejected any suggestion that the
United States pull forces out of the Persian Gulf, where they have been
stationed since the 1991 war with Iraq.
Grogan, an Omaha businessman,
began running a series of radio and television commercials attacking the gas
price increases.
He promises to fight them by demanding OPEC cut the
price of a barrel of oil, by cutting the federal gas tax and by opening up areas
of Alaska and other places to exploration.
The idea of cutting the
federal gas tax was raised and quickly abandoned by congressional Republicans
when trucking groups said the 4.3-cent-a-gallon tax has had little impact.
Grogan insisted that cutting that tax would be a start.
Grogan
concentrated mostly on the oil-producing countries, particularly Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia, "because 254 Americans died so they could have freedom. And what
do we get in return, possibly $ 2-a-gallon gas this summer."
He called
the price increase "a crisis," although gas prices today, adjusted for
inflation, are about the same as they were from the 1950s through much of the
1990s.
LOAD-DATE: March 22, 2000
