Immediate Action Needed On Gas Prices & Supplies, AAA Says

    PALM DESERT, Calif.--May 2, 2001--With Americans again facing possibly the highest gasoline prices ever this summer, as well as the most potentially serious threat to adequate gasoline supplies since the early 1980s, AAA is calling on car owners and the federal government to take immediate action.
    At its Annual Meeting here today, AAA - which represents 44 million motorists and approximately 25 percent of the nation's households - said for a second consecutive year some areas of the U.S. are already paying record-high gasoline prices and are bracing for prices in excess of $2 per gallon.
    AAA said the return of record-high prices has been induced by last year's increase in the price of crude oil, a lack of domestic investment in refining and distribution capacity, industry consolidation, and policy decisions made over the years on how to meet desirable environmental objectives.
    To help deal with the prospect of record-breaking gasoline prices, AAA called for the following:

--	The promulgation of a comprehensive national energy strategy by the White House and its immediate consideration by Congress. To be successful, the strategy must include access to adequate supplies of domestic and foreign-produced crude oil, increased capacity in the nation's gasoline refining and distribution infrastructure, the maintenance of gasoline inventories sufficient to meet the needs of motorists during a national emergency, increased use of alternative energy sources and vigorous government oversight of the energy industry's production and pricing practices.
--	The immediate adoption of reasonable gasoline conservation measures by car owners and businesses to ease the strain on low inventories of gasoline, especially in those areas required to use special cleaner-burning fuel during the summer. (AAA has fuel conservation advice available free in its brochure, The AAA Gas Watcher's Guide.)
--	A policy statement from the White House that restrictive, local gasoline regulations will be suspended on an emergency basis, if a determination is made that sufficient fuel is unlikely to remain available to meet the needs of motorists in any region, state or metropolitan area covered by these regulations.
--	The appointment of a special presidential commission that includes motorists, environmentalists, gasoline refiners, distributors and station owners, to study the economic feasibility of converting the nation to a single cleaner-burning fuel standard. A return to a national fuel standard could enhance air quality while eliminating the destabilizing influence of market restricting local gasoline regulations. It would also come at a cost to industry and motorists, but it might stabilize prices at a lower level over the longer-term.

    AAA said it believes the goals of a national energy policy must be reasonable environmental protection, adequate domestic energy production to meet the demands of a growing economy, secure access to domestic and foreign natural resources, and adequate inventories of useable energy to respond to a natural disaster or a national security emergency.