Editorial: Stop the Draining

Week by week, some of the lifeblood of the trucking industry is being drained away to the coffers of the oil-exporting nations that, through sheer happenstance, sit on deep pools of crude.

While the galloping price run-ups of recent months seem to have leveled off, diesel and gasoline costs to users remain at all-time highs because of market manipulations by the producers and a failure by the largest oil consumers, namely the United States, to take any effective action to counter those machinations.

Rather, we have had to obediently wait, hat in hand, for the oil producers to agree to talk about slowly increasing the supply of oil that they deign to sell us. The price elevator has slowed

nly because Saudi Arabia and others say they will consider production increases at a meeting this week.

Reasonable efforts — with the loud and unwavering support of ATA and others in trucking — have failed to bear fruit, such as to get the Clinton administration to tap the national emergency fuel reserve and temporarily increase the supply of crude, or to get Congress to drop the 4.3-cent portion of the federal motor fuels tax implemented in 1993.

Among the world’s leading oil producers are several nations that claim to be special friends of the U.S., led by Mexico, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. The economies of all three of these nations are heavily intertwined with that of the U.S., and the Saudis have a military relationship with the U.S. that is unmatched in the Arab world.

Is it unreasonable to ask, or indeed to expect, that nations that desire special relationships with us not act to harm our economy?

Some economists have pointed out that, in Mexico’s case, for example, the harm that could befall the economy of an oil-producing country because of a slowdown in the U.S. economy may far outstrip any short-term economic gain from the sale of oil at inflated prices.

How much longer must we wait for decisive federal action?

Leaders are supposed to lead. Jaw-boning is one tool in a government’s arsenal, but it better not be the Clinton administration’s only tool.

Mr. President, are you paying attention?