ASHINGTON - Trying to capitalize on voter anger over the high price of gasoline, Vice President Al Gore will announce a multibillion dollar plan this week to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
The plan, according to campaign officials, is made up of a series of financial incentives to induce industry to produce more fuel-efficient cars and to persuade consumers to drive them. There are also tax credits and grants to encourage power plants to convert to newer technologies, as well as for consumers to convert their homes to solar power.
Cities would be eligible for bonds and grants to develop light-rail transportation systems and to buy less-polluting buses. Entrepreneurs would get incentives to develop cleaner-burning, more fuel-efficient technology. Gore is also hoping to see people buy and drive hybrid cars that run on gasoline, electricity, and diesel fuel.
Campaign officials declined to say how much his plan would cost to implement, but described the amount as ''unprecedented.''
''We absolutely need a short-term solution on gas prices,'' said Chris Lehane, the campaign press secretary. ''But we have to put ourselves on a path to a long-term solution in a way that will keep the environment clean and produce reliable energy sources.''
The Bush campaign dismissed Gore's initiative, which will be rolled out Tuesday in Philadelphia, as warmed-over ideas from past budgets that have gone nowhere.
''After eight years of weak leadership, Al Gore is proposing nothing new,'' said Dan Bartlett, a spokesman for Texas Governor George W. Bush. Bartlett also accused Gore of supporting higher gas prices, citing a tie-breaking vote in 1993 for a 4.3 cents-a-gallon increase for gasoline.
Lehane, however, noted that Houston is the smoggiest city in the United States and that Bush, a former oil executive, supports tax breaks for the oil industry and has taken in $1.5 million from the oil industry for his campaign this year.
''Gore has fought the oil companies and the polluters,'' said Lehane. ''I think it's pretty clear who's on your side.''
In recent days, Gore and Bush have been angling for position when it comes to oil. Each candidate has called for an investigation of the oil companies by the Federal Trade Commission to look for evidence of collusion. Also, each one has tried to pin blame on the other for the high cost of gasoline.
The subject is particularly sensitive in the campaign because oil prices have rocketed in key battleground states such as Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. In some places, gas prices are more than $2 a gallon.
Yesterday, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, proposed that Congress suspend the 18.4 cents-per-gallon federal gasoline tax for the summer.
