Frustration over gas prices _ and the state tax components therein _ has boiled over into a grass-roots protest that could have hundreds of truckers converging on the West Virginia Capitol in their rigs Friday.
The Associated Press, MetroNews (with audio), the Charleston Daily Mail and The Charleston Gazette offer a preview. The latter spoke to 0rganizer Gary Davis, a Sutton-based handyman.
"We want fuel prices rolled back two [dollars] to two and a quarter," Davis told the newspaper. "We know that something can be done; it's a racket."
Organizers have dubbed the rolling protest the "Hillbilly Express." Once at the Capitol, the drivers hope to speak to Gov. Joe Manchin.
Belated Update: The protest didn't yield the numbers organizers had hoped for, but AP counted more than 60 trucks and rigs pull off Interstate 64/77. Once at the Capitol, the truckers and their supporters heard from a senior aide to Manchin and other state officials. Their message, that relief could only be reached at the federal level, did little for the protesters.
"Several said they face being forced to idle or even sell their rigs. A show of hands suggested most lack health coverage, with a number indicating they shed that benefit to cut costs," AP reported. "Amid talk of returning next week in larger numbers, some protesters called for a statewide hauling shutdown. Others spoke of rallying West Virginians to spearhead a national push to tackle the problem."
Manchin was absent, on an out-of-state trip. That only worsened the protesters' mood - until, as The Charleston Gazette reported, his staffers arranged a closed-door teleconference between the governor and protest leaders.
Besides pledging to relay their plea to President Bush, "Manchin also promised to form a coalition with other governors through the Democratic Governors Association to press for fuel-price support when the group meets on Tuesday," The Gazette reported.
"I will ask President Bush to release some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help stabilize the current cost of fuel," Manchin said in a statement released after the protest. "But we also need to understand that this would be a short-term bandage; the key is that we've got to get the federal government to understand the urgency of this issue."
Public Broadcasting also has a story, with audio.
04 April 2008
Gas Price Protest Expected to Crowd Capitol
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5 comments:
It may come as a surprise to the protestors, but gasoline and diesel prices are not set by our all-powerful Gov. Manchin or anyone in the state government. The best they could do is drop the about 35 cent in state taxes, but then they'd have to raise other taxes to pay for road work.
Over 60% of our oil is imported at a cost of over $100 per barrel (about $2.50 per gallon). The protesters want fuel at $2.25 per gallon, so I guess they expect all taxes to be dropped and refiners to process for free and then sell it to them for $.25 cents less than they paid. Somehow that seems unlikely.
Yeah, Clear Eyes, but at the same time, it's the truckers who bring everything we buy to the stores. If they can't afford to drive their trucks and make a living, they'll quit, sell their rigs, and find other sources of income or go on welfare. In which case, no stuff in the stores, and more tax burden on the rest of us (if they do go on welfare and/or need medicaid.)
I thought like you until I talked to my father-in-law, who drives a truck in the South. It's so expensive to drive that a lot of his fellow truckers are losing their rigs because they can't pay for them. Pretty sad, when you consider how hard these guys work to earn an honest living, and how much we depend on them as a society.
There has to be a solution.
There is a solution.
If these truckers are truly self employed, they do like the rest of the world does, raise their prices.
If they're not men enough to do that, they deserve to go out of business.
Somebody else will come along and do the job if they don't want to.
Anonymous- Do you actually KNOW anyone who is in this business? My father saw this situation coming down the pike two years ago so he parked his semi (luckily for him it was paid for) and started hauling coal. Of course he is facing the same problem in that industry as well but at least he is home every day and not sleeping in a truck. Truckers can try to negotiate for a better deal but the companies can always tell them to go take a hike and not renew contracts which is what they frequently do. Companies are always willing to replace EXPERIENCED truck drivers commercial drivers right out of driving school for lower wages-they are barely able to drive those things. Who do you want on your highways when you are traveling? But I will be sure to pass along to my father that you think those in his profession aren't MANLY enough because they don't want to work 24/7 for a loss. Please take your Ayn Rand rhetoric elsewhere please.
35 cents a gallon would make a difference ... to some people it is difference between making it and not. States like GA have been operating that way for a couple years now (without state gasoline tax) As far as why truckers should not just raise their prices? Most are bound by contracts and in many cases are being replaced by large trucking corporations that have gasoline stockpiles (that will run out soon) and pick up the contracts. Yea ... I am still waiting for my pay raise to come for the rising gas prices ... anyone get their's yet? Yea ... I didn't think so 8(
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