Oil Flows, And So Does Rhetoric

The oil is flowing, and so is the campaign rhetoric.

Two days after Al Gore requested him to do so, President Clinton ordered the release of oil from the nation's strategic reserves to combat rising gas and heating prices. The vice president chatted with Mr. Clinton on the phone about the matter on the same day he made a public appeal to the president to open the spigots.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush accused Mr. Clinton and Gore of playing politics with the nation's security by releasing oil from the reserve.

"Ten months ago the president and vice president thought it was a bad idea to release oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," Bush said.

"Now that we are 45 days away from the election, I agree with them that it was a bad idea in the past and I still think it's a bad idea. It's a bad idea because the Strategic Petroleum Reserve needs to be used in case of war or a major disruption."

Gore, campaigning near Pittsburgh, said he had no advance knowledge of what Mr. Clinton had decided to do. And Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said in announcing the step, "This is not political."

"I think it's time to stand up to the apologists for big oil," Gore said, in a comment aimed at Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney, who have both worked in the oil industry.

Eight months ago, Gore dismissed the idea of releasing reserve oil. But now, seven weeks before the election, he reversed field.

"We ought to start with several releases of five million barrels each," Gore said, "and assuming that is successful, we should continue with these swaps in an effort to stabilize the price of oil at lower levels and help consumers."

Busdisagrees, saying foreign producers must live up to promises to increase supplies.

"It's time for OPEC to get serious about the supply and price of oil," Bush said.

And he said, the federal petroleum reserve "is not meant to be used for short term political gain. It is short sighted public policy."

The Bush campaign said Gore wanted to take more oil out of strategic reserves than was taken out during the entire Gulf War, when only 21 million barrels were sold.

GOP running mate Dick Cheney called it "an expedient, crass political move."

Cheney also doesn't think it is a long term solution. We got 570 million barrels in the reserves. At our current level of consumption that's probably less than two months' supply. And it's gone if we were to take and use all of our 20 million barrels a day out of the Reserve instead of someplace else."

But Gore, surrounded by couples invited to hear his oil case at a union hall in Vanport, Pa., said "some of these families in here are facing an emergency."

He charged that the oil industry has "been trying by every means possible to see an increase in the price of oil. "

"The big oil companies have gone over there and said to OPEC, 'Why don't you cut back on your production, and that will raise the price of oil for everybody,' " Gore said.

"These prices are skyrocketing, it's hurting small business, it's hurting those on fixed incomes, it's hurting young families, and the prospect for even higher prices ahead is going to cause even more trouble unless we act," Gore said.

He was addressing a major concern in Pennsylvania, a 23-electoral vote swing state both Gore and Bush have high on their target lists. According to the Gore campaign, 1.2 million Pennsylvania homeowners use oil for heat.

Whatever the political and economic merits of the competing claims, one thing is clear: This week's debate over the petroleum reserve illustrated the advantages of incumbency, with Mr. Clinton promptly obliging the wishes of his vice president.

The presidential go-ahead could make Gore a hero to Americans battered by high gas prices. But it could also give the Bush camp a stick to beat the Democrats with, if the charge of rampant political opportunism can be made to stick.