Bush Attacks Gore on Gas Prices

George W. Bush said Friday that Al Gore was being hypocritical for lambasting oil companies for high gas prices when the vice president once advocated raising gas taxes to encourage conservation.

The remarks came as Gov. Bush got his presidential campaign back in swing the day after a controversial execution in Texas kept him mostly behind closed doors and off the trail.

On his first stop in Alabama as a presidential candidate, the presumptive Republican nominee spoke to enthusiastic supporters, touting his plan to revamp Social Security. Bush also sought to capitalize on the continuing controversy over Gore’s 1996 fund-raising efforts, promising to restore “dignity and honor to the White House.”

He spoke angrily about gas prices, saying Gore unfairly linked Bush with rising costs at the pump. Gore and others have alleged that oil companies have artificially raised prices. This week the Federal Trade Commission launched an inquiry into whether the industry had engaged in unfair practices.

The price of a gallon of gas may continue to be a hot issue in this presidential campaign, with prices in some Midwestern cities soaring to more than $2.50 a gallon.

The price hikes and accusations of price gouging are politically sensitive for Bush, who was in the oil business for more than a decade and still has ties to the community.

Bush has raised more than 10 times as much money from oil and gas companies as Gore--more than $1.5 million to Gore’s $99,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research firm. On Friday, Bush rejected any questions about the influence of those contributions.

Bush said his opponent was passing the buck.

“This is typical of an administration that refuses to accept responsibility. They’ve been in office for seven years, and the price of gasoline has gone up during that period of time,” said Bush, who said he believes the United States should use its “political capital” to persuade OPEC to produce more oil.

Bush also attacked Gore with his own words, reading from a paperback copy of Gore’s 1992 book, “Earth in the Balance,” which details the world’s most pressing environmental problems.

Gore wrote that increasing taxes on fossil fuels would be “one of the logical first steps” to a more responsible environmental policy. In the same sentence, however, Gore acknowledged that such an approach has been decisively rejected by American voters.

“It seems Mr. Gore is running from his own position,” Bush said. “On the one hand, he calls for higher gas prices, but now suddenly when the heat is on and prices go up, he folds.”

Gore campaign officials countered that Bush was misrepresenting the vice president’s statements.

“The Texas oilman is obviously feeling the heat over gas prices and his failure to take on his friends in the oil business,” said Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway. “As his close ties to the oil industry are exposed, Gov. Bush is making false attacks on Al Gore’s record. Rather than go negative on Gore, he should stand up to the oil industry and demand to know why their profits are sky high while consumers are hurting.”

In Alabama, where he has led in statewide polls, Bush was greeted warmly. Small groups of people waited on street corners and at the ends of their driveways, cameras and video recorders in hand, to capture his one-day visit to their state.

At Randall Publishing Co., the trade publication firm best known for Who’s Who directories, the Texas governor spoke in a cavernous warehouse where an enormous American flag stretched from the rafters to the floor. Bush pointed out two single mothers who work at the company to compare his plan for Social Security with his opponent’s.

Gore says the government should provide matching funds for people who save money in private investment accounts. “What he’s got to understand,” Bush said, “is some workers like these ladies up here can’t afford to make a contribution.” Bush advocates letting people invest a portion of their Social Security taxes in private investment accounts.