Under fire, Perdue asks Bush to tap oil reserves

As Gov. Sonny Perdue tries to drum up business on a trade mission in Spain, his office insists he’s also staying on top of Georgia’s gas shortage.

Perdue’s staff on Monday put out a release saying the governor has asked President Bush to have the Department of Energy release a significant amount of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Perdue acknowledged it would take time for the crude to be processed by refineries and shipped to the metro Atlanta market.

The announcement comes as Perdue continues to face criticism from Democrats, who have called for him to return early from his weeklong trip to Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon and Milan.

Polling suggests the governor’s performance during the fuel shortage isn’t earning points with Georgians.

At the Capitol on Monday, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle filled in for the governor, holding a news conference to talk about how state leaders are working with suppliers to get more fuel to Georgia.

Cagle, who is running to succeed the two-term governor in 2010, denied that state officials underestimated the magnitude of the gas shortage. He declined to comment when asked about the timing of Perdue’s trip to Europe.

“The crisis we are facing is severe. Nobody is more frustrated about this than I am,” Cagle told reporters.

Getting crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could eventually help a little, one expert said.

Apparently, some refineries have had trouble getting their normal shipments of oil to be transformed into gasoline, said Brian Milne, refined fuels editor for DTN, an energy information service. Opening up the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve has helped them move back toward full production, he said.

“The SPR has been tapped into, and five refineries have received its oil,” he said: Marathon, Citgo, Placid Refining Co., Conoco Phillips and Alon USA.

An InsiderAdvantage poll taken early last week showed Perdue’s approval rating had dropped from 63 percent in late April to 52 percent. That polling was taken before the second-term governor left on the trade mission that could cost the state $100,000.

It was also before The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Perdue said the gas panic was, in part, “self-induced” and that there was “ample fuel.”

Matt Towery, CEO of InsiderAdvantage, an Atlanta media and polling firm, said his company has been polling the issue nightly. He said that since last week’s poll, Perdue’s approval ratings have fallen below 50 percent. That’s a remarkable drop for a governor who has been among the most popular politicians in the state for years.

Towery said Perdue’s drop isn’t all about gas: Georgians in general are less happy with their politicians. But he added, “In the last week, the gas situation has increasingly been weighing on the governor’s approval rating.”

Georgians, he said, “are not seeing their governor. Whether he’s here or not, they are not seeing him.”

“An increasing number of people are putting this [gas crisis] at his feet,” Towery said. “This thing has deepened and gotten worse. Somebody’s got to step forward and show some leadership.”

Bert Brantley, the governor’s spokesman, said Perdue has been in contact several times a day with his staff to get updates on the situation and make decisions.

“He’s just as much in contact as if he were sitting here,” Brantley said. “He’s making all the same decisions.

“If this were the ’50s, and we didn’t have BlackBerries, cellphones and the Internet, I could see that there may be concerns. But we can get him on a moment’s notice.”

Democrats accuse Perdue of being out of touch with not only the gas crisis, but the state’s fiscal mess. Georgia is facing a budget shortfall of about $1.6 billion.

“He has done as he pleases for six years, and that’s why we’re in the situation we’re in,” said Rep. Alan Powell (D-Hartwell). “This governor is the leader of this state, and he called for a freeze on unnecessary spending and unnecessary travel. This governor should lead by example.”

Staff writer Michael Kanell contributed to this article.

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