By Bruce Edwards

Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., on Thursday called the soaring price of gasoline and other energy products a "national crisis" that must be addressed by President Bush and the Congress.

Sanders said while Americans are being squeezed by higher gas and oil prices with no end in sight, oil companies and energy speculators are reaping huge profits with no regard for the nation's welfare.

He said the feedback he's getting is that high energy prices are the No. 1 concern among Vermonters.

"Virtually all of them are talking about what high gas prices are doing to them, what high home heating oil prices are doing to them," Sanders said, "and it's really disrupting their lives and frightening them very much for the future."

While acknowledging there is no simple solution, Sanders said he's been pushing the Democratic leadership to tackle short-term and long-term solutions to the problem.

"The truth of the matter is on this issue and many other issues I think President Bush and Cheney haven't a clue or concern about what is going on with ordinary people," he said, adding that Congress has failed to address the issue as well.

Sanders and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., sent a letter to President Bush this week urging him to pressure Saudi Arabia to increase oil production. Sanders said the U.S. defended Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War and the U.S. continues to sell the Saudis sophisticated weapons.

"One of the demands right now is to say to Saudi Arabia, 'If you want our weapons, how about increasing production,'" he said.

Sanders other recommendations include:

• Dismantling the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. He called OPEC an illegal price-fixing cartel that violates international free trade rules. He urged Bush to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization and demand the dismantling of OPEC.
• Imposing a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. While the price of gasoline is expected to hit or surpass $4 a gallon this summer, he noted that Exxon-Mobil last year turned a $40 billion profit, the largest profit in corporate history. According to Sanders, since President Bush has been in office, the five largest U.S. oil companies have made more than $500 billion in profits.The oil companies defend their profits saying they're not out of line with the size of their companies and that the profits offset their bottom line during lean years.
• Closing the Enron Loophole. Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., have called on regulating energy traders who are suspected of manipulating the price of oil, bidding up the prices and making huge profits. Sanders cited some experts who believe that speculation is increasing the price of oil by 20 percent to 30 percent.
• Stopping the flow of oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and immediately releasing oil from the federal stockpile to reduce gasoline prices. He said both President Clinton and the first President Bush released oil from the reserve during their times in office, helping to lower prices.
• Authorizing the president to impose price caps to stabilize prices in the event of market manipulation. Sanders cited Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to impose temporary price caps on electricity. He said when FERC used its authority to deal with the California energy crisis created by Enron, electricity prices plummeted.

Also helping to drive up the price of oil experts say is the war in Iraq and the surging economies of China and India.

In the long term, Sanders said, the country has to "break our dependency on Mideast oil, break our dependency on fossil fuel, move to energy efficiency and move to sustainable energy."

He said the country has made some small strides in that direction by increasing vehicle mileage standards and extending the tax credits for homeowners to install small wind and solar energy units.