newsminer.com

WASHINGTON — Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell criticized U.S. Rep. Don Young this week for suggesting that increasing the federal gasoline tax would benefit the country.

In an interview that ran in the Anchorage Daily News on Friday, Young said a 5-cent increase in the 18-cent gasoline tax would provide more money for road construction projects and prompt drivers to change their habits.

Young, who has supported boosting the federal gas tax since he was chairman of the House Transportation Committee, a post he held from 2001 until Republicans lost control of Congress in 2006, said the only way to drive down soaring gas prices is to increase supply and curb consumption.

Parnell said Young’s comments show that he’s out of touch with Alaskans who are paying $4 a gallon or more at the pump.

In Fairbanks, the average price of regular unleaded was $4.33 on Tuesday, according to the motorist group AAA.

“I think Don Young is the only one from Alaska who thinks gas prices are too low,” Parnell said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Parnell said he still supports as a short-term solution suspending the federal gas tax during the summer driving season — though he acknowledges it’s probably too late to have an impact — and in the long run increasing domestic production of petroleum, including allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Parnell said he also supports a temporary suspension of the state’s 8-cent-per-gallon gas tax to give motorists a break.

“I don’t want to keep heaping additional burdens on Alaskans already suffering from high energy prices,” he said.

The idea of a national gas tax holiday has been proposed both by members of Congress and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, though economists and energy analysts have panned the idea as poor fiscal policy that’s unlikely to lower prices at the pump.

Most energy analysts blame record-high crude oil prices on growing demand in Asia’s emerging economies, tight supplies, political unrest in the Middle East, the weak dollar and excessive speculation in the oil commodities markets.

Parnell said Young has a history of repeatedly trying to raise federal gas taxes during his 18 terms in Congress.

“It’s loud and clear that Young wants to raise gas taxes any time he can,” Parnell said in a prepared statement. “At this time when hard-working Alaskans are struggling with record gas prices, I can’t think of a proposal that more clearly shows that after 35 years in Washington, Don Young has lost touch with Alaskans.”

On Tuesday, Young fired back, accusing Parnell of lacking a clear understanding of how federal highway funds are used. He said stopping collection of the federal gas tax, even temporarily, would deal a serious blow to the nation’s highway system.

The federal highway trust fund already faces a shortfall next year of up to $3.5 billion nationwide, which could mean a reduction in funding to the state of $101 million, Young said. Suspending the gas tax would only exasperate the problem for Alaska’s already ailing road system, Young said.

“Given this major impact to Alaska and Alaskans, Sean needs to explain how he plans to make up for the millions of dollars and thousands of jobs lost with his support of a gas tax moratorium,” Young said.

Parnell said the cost of the tax holiday could easily be paid for by chopping funding for the pet projects of lawmakers, better known as “earmarks.”

“I think the answer is to eliminate wasteful government spending instead of everyone gathering around the trough to see how much we can get for our districts,” he said. “I won’t burden Alaskans with additional taxes.”

Young, a staunch defender of earmarks as a fast and efficient way to direct federal dollars to community priorities, dismissed Parnell’s talk of stripping pet projects from the budget as political pandering.

“His ideas point to a gross misinterpretation of the way Alaskans are affected on a daily basis and I find his so-called ‘fixes’ downright scary,” Young said by e-mail.

Young, who has been trying to open ANWR for decades, also questioned how a freshman representative hopes to succeed where the current delegation has failed. Young has succeeded in passing an ANWR bill out of the House 12 times, only to see it blocked in the Senate or by presidential veto.

Parnell said what’s needed is a new approach.

“I think a new voice that has the ability to work with people generates the good will and respect necessary to get ANWR open and moving,” he said.