LEVELAND - George W. Bush accused Al Gore yesterday of coddling big oil companies by proposing that deep-water natural gas drillers continue to get a break on fees despite soaring fuel prices.
Gore, who often criticizes Bush as a friend of big oil, called for an extension of the royalty moratorium as part of his 10-year plan for nurturing new energy technologies.
Such moratoriums are inappropriate for times when energy prices are skyrocketing, said Bush, a former oilman.
''The price of natural gas is what's stimulating exploration and the price of natural gas is pretty high now,'' Bush said at a campaign stop here. ''In other words, my opponent is giving major oil companies a huge tax break.''
Instead, the Gore campaign called the plan an incentive that would stimulate domestic energy production and reduce the nation's dependence on foreign producers. To oppose the plan, said a spokesman, Doug Hattaway, is to oppose lower prices.
''Once again Bush is in favor of higher energy prices for consumers,'' Hattaway said.
President Clinton signed the ''Deep Water Royalty Relief Act'' in 1995 to stimulate domestic oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when prices were low. It is scheduled to expire in November, and Gore said Tuesday that it should be extended.
Bush made his comments at the end of a fund-raising swing through New York, Michigan, and Ohio. Bush touted himself as a less judgmental Republican than those who took control of Congress in 1995 and promised to shut down agencies and reform the immigration system.
''I think unfairly but truthfully, our party's been tagged for being against things - anti-immigrant, for example,'' Bush told reporters yesterday in a stop at Vocational Guidance Services, a nonprofit company that helps people with disabilities work.
''The message at times was: vote for me, I'm going to abolish the Department of Education,'' Bush added. ''The problem was often times voters forgot the `department of' and all they heard was `I'm going to abolish education.'
''Slowly but surely I'm beginning to change the imagery.''
Gore has countered by painting Bush as a conservative Republican who opposes abortion rights and as Texas governor did not protest anti-immigrant legislation like California's Proposition 187, which cut off state services to illegal immigrants.
At one of two fund-raisers to raise $1.3 million for national and Ohio Republicans, Bush reiterated his opposition to abortion. He declared his ''disappointment'' with the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to strike down a state law banning what Bush and other opponents call ''partial-birth abortions.'' Bush pledged to fight to ban the procedures.
Gore said the election will not only choose a new president and Congress, but also ''the future of the Supreme Court, and that, in turn, will decide whether or not we keep a woman's right to choose or see it taken away.''
Bush called yesterday for federal spending to help make it easier for people with disabilities to find jobs and travel to them.
