Editorial: Public needs more action, less posturing on energy costs

The big energy debate on Capitol Hill these days is not whether the United States should encourage more domestic exploration and drilling for oil. The question is where that should be done.

One camp, composed mainly of conservatives and Republicans, wants to open offshore areas and northern Alaska to drilling.

Another group, composed mainly of environmentalists and Democrats, say the federal government already has leased large tracts of land for exploration, but oil companies aren't using those leases. This group is pushing a "use it or lose it" approach to those leases.

This argument will play out for a while. We will hear conflicting histories and conflicting numbers on how much is leased and what reserves are untapped. It will all be very confusing, as is most of the talk about energy prices.

Meanwhile, the rest of us live with the day-to-day reality of rising energy costs.

People watch as crude oil hits record prices every week, and they wonder if they need to fill up the tank today before the price goes up tomorrow. They talk about how they used to pay for gasoline with $20 bills. Now they use fifties.

You can't even pay with a credit card without causing a problem. Two weeks ago, Roger Randolph, manager of Mr. Ed's Chevron in St. Albans, W.Va., banned the use of credit cards at his store. He said the fees charged by the credit card companies were getting so high that he wasn't making any profit on his gasoline.

Credit card companies usually charge a percentage of the sale. The normal fee is 2 percent, according to The Associated Press. With gasoline around $4 a gallon, that amounts to 8 cents, or close to the profit convenience stores normally make.

Convenience store owners had complained about the fees, and Congress had begun looking into the business of "interchange fees" recently. Last week, Visa Inc. said it would reduce its transaction fees.

It's not just gasoline that has us thinking and talking. Here in the parts of West Virginia served by Appalachian Power, the price of electricity is about to go up 11.35 percent because of the increasing price of coal. The coal boom we've been hearing about has made state government awash with cash, but it is about to drain our household budgets of a little more money.

Appalachian Power says the rate increase will raise its annual revenue from West Virginia approximately $106 million. Most of the increase -- about $88.3 million -- will cover higher prices for coal and purchased power. About $3.8 million goes toward reliability improvements. The remaining $13.9 million will help cover additional investments in a $1.4 billion scrubber project to cut sulfur dioxide emissions from the Mountaineer and John Amos power plants, according to the AP.

Congress argues over the long-term issues that might -- might -- bring about some changes in about 10 years. Sometimes, as with the credit card fees, it can bring some changes that affect us in the short term. But most of what you hear coming out of Washington means little in our day-to-day dealings with the increasing cost of energy.

Governors and legislators are in the middle. They can respond with the most effect to our daily energy problems. The West Virginia Legislature last week showed it can help by canceling a scheduled 6-cent increase in state gasoline taxes. The question is whether it can react to other energy issues, such as what happens when electric companies pass on their increased fuel costs.

You can't expect Appalachian Power to not pass on those costs. But as the voting public realizes that state government is doing well because of the same forces that is increasing consumers' costs, something will have to give.

It would be good to hear what candidates running for office have to say about this. The public can no longer afford to listen to politicians stake out positions while getting nothing done. We've had enough of bickering, bumper sticker slogans and talking points. Let's see who has some meaningful solutions and policies that make sense.