Truckers Head to D.C. to Protest Fuel Prices 8:14 a.m. ET (1314 GMT) March 16, 2000 By John P. Martin WASHINGTON  For the second time in three weeks, a convoy of several hundred truckers will barrel into the nation's capital Thursday to demand relief from rising gas prices.

AP/Wide World Contesting the high price of fuel, truckers will descend on Washington

Organizers hope to draw as many as 500 trucks from around the country for Thursday's rally outside the Capitol. The truckers will demand that Congress and the White House act immediately to unleash reserves and pressure oil-producing countries to ease the skyrocketing prices.

"We feel that it's a national emergency," said Tom Pokrywka, a New Jersey dump truck owner and president of the National Owner-Operators Trucking Association, which organized the rally.

The group claims 10,000 members, and says independent truckers have been stung particularly hard by the recent surge in fuel prices, because, unlike most commercial truckers, they usually can't pass on the costs to their customers. Some simply have stopped working, Pokrywka said, and a trucking crisis could hurt the economy.

"Obviously if the trucks stop rolling, the goods aren't going to get to their shelves," he said.

More than 200 independent truckers staged a similar rally in the nation's capital on Feb. 22. Among their demands is a request to repeal fuel taxes. A proposal to repeal the 4.3 percent gas tax has backing in Congress, but critics say such a repeal would halt millions of dollars slated for crucial highway improvement projects.

On Wednesday, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson suggested it was unlikely the White House would repeal the tax, enacted in 1993. "It's being reviewed, but our early look at this is not positive," Richardson told reporters.

But the crisis is not likely to die. Republican and Democrats held dueling news conferences Wednesday to attack each other for failed energy policies. And GOP Presidential nominee George W. Bush has increasingly laid blame for the price increases on the Clinton administration and his opponent, Vice President Al Gore.

Danny Johnston/AP Kevin Miller, a national trucker representative, seeks to promote higher freight rates and lower fuel prices

Bills pending in both the House and Senate would authorize President Clinton to cut off U.S. foreign aid and arms sales to OPEC members and other countries that fix crude oil prices. Action on those could come before March 27, when OPEC members meet and could opt to increase production and ease the deficit.

Meanwhile, prices have shown few signs of slowing. In the Washington area, a gallon of regular gas jumped a record 13.7 cents in the last month, to $1.53, according to the American Automobile Association. In some areas, prices have nudged close to $2 a gallon.

Pokrywka, 36, said he now pays nearly $170 a day to fuel his dump truck, twice as much as he did a year ago.

"It's taken what was a low-profit business and turned it into a no-profit business," he said.

Protesting truckers last month blocked traffic in Philadelphia, Newark and Elizabeth, N.J., but Pokrywka pledged that Thursday's rally will be peaceful. "We're not coming down to close the city down," he said.

With escorts from state and local police, the truckers plan to arrive in two convoys after the morning rush hour and depart by late afternoon. Overflow parking areas have been established near the Capitol for the rigs and drivers will take shuttles to the rally behind the Senate building.

Several members of Congress are expected to address the crowd, which won't be large, especially for a Washington rally. Only 2,000 people are allowed under the permit issued by the Capitol police, according to spokesman Lt.Dan Nichols.

Pokrywka said truckers will then fan out to the offices of their local legislators before leaving. He said the rallies could continue as long as prices rise.

"We're coming back with twice the amount of trucks we did the first time," Pokrywka said. "If we have to come back with twice as many again, that's what we'll do."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 16, 2000