SCHUMER'S SLICK SOLUTION TO ENERGY CRISIS IS SUE OPEC Tuesday,October 3,2000
By TOM TOPOUSIS
OPEC's stranglehold on the U.S. energy market has some elected officials calling for an age-old solution: Drag the cartel of oil-producing nations into court.
Sen. Charles Schumer, testifying at a hearing on heating-oil prices at City Hall yesterday, said he's co-sponsoring a Senate bill that would let U.S. lawyers sue OPEC in the World Court.
"Some think it's a little hokey, but I think we ought to try it," said the New York Democrat, who agreed with Mayor Giuliani's description of the cartel as flouting antitrust laws here at home.
A suit in World Court, Schumer said, "would certainly bring to light the fact that the anti-competitive practices of OPEC are at the root of the supply curve not meeting the increase in demand."
Giuliani opened the two-day hearing by the city's Consumer Affairs Department in an effort to brace the city for surging heating-oil prices predicted for this winter.
But the mayor was quick to blast OPEC leaders as brigands. "As a former Justice Department official and United States attorney, it's galling to me that what OPEC is doing, if it were done by American oil companies, would have the chief executives of all the American oil companies headed for jail," said Giuliani.
Looking for solutions closer to home, Giuliani suggested that taxes on heating oil could be lowered - but only if it's a simultaneous reduction by federal, state and city treasuries.
Giuliani and Schumer also called for increases in federal emergency assistance to low-income families and the elderly who are hard-pressed to pick up the increasing cost of heating their homes.
The price of a gallon of heating oil is $1.65 in the city, compared with $1.18 last year. But the price of oil is sure to rise with demand during winter. Last year, prices hit $2.20. And with stockpiles of oil far below last year's level, homeowners could see the price hit record levels this winter.
President Clinton's decision to release 30 million gallons of oil from the nation's strategic reserves was aimed at lowering prices.
But some analysts testifying yesterday said the additional oil won't do much good because over- burdened refineries don't have the capacity to process the additional crude in time for this heating season.