ONTIAC, Mich. - With the Middle East in ferment, George W. Bush yesterday went to auto country to deliver a broadside against Al Gore's energy views and warn that high fuel prices could continue without a new energy policy and better relations with suppliers in the oil-rich region.
The Republican nominee also renewed his criticism of the administration's recent decision to release 30 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an oil stockpile that Bush contends is being tapped for political purposes.
''Every barrel released today is one less barrel available to protect us against threats to our security, threats that are becoming more vivid with this week's turmoil and violence in the Middle East,'' Bush told hundreds of auto engineers at the General Motors Truck Product Center.
He said that since the release, home heating oil prices have increased. He also seized on news reports that some of the firms bidding for the oil had just one employee or had been in existence for less than two months.
''If this is the best this administration can do, it is time for a new administration,'' Bush said.
The Gore campaign chafed at Bush's criticism.
''Governor Bush seems to think that the people in the Northeast can fill their oil tanks with attacks instead of home heating oil. He has yet to propose a single idea that solves the home-heating oil problems without ruining our environment. Al Gore has a real plan. He's going to continue to work on the problem,'' said Kym Spell, a spokeswoman for Gore.
Bush walked a delicate line between domestic politics and foreign relations with his speech.
On Thursday, after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Palestinian mobs, he said the United States must speak with ''one voice'' in condemning the violence. Yesterday, he began his speech with a short statement about the deaths, saying, ''The picture of that young man with blood on his hands celebrating the death of an Israeli soldier, that kind of act must be condemned,'' he said.
But Bush sprinkled his energy remarks with direct references to the Middle East, criticizing an increase in US reliance on oil from Iraq and the draw-down from the Strategic Reserve.
''The current crisis in the Middle East underscores the danger of American reliance on Saddam Hussein's oil,'' he said.
A hefty portion of Bush's speech recapped the energy plan he unveiled two weeks ago during a visit to Saginaw.
He called for greater domestic exploration, particularly in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, a streamlining of federal bureaucracies to boost refinery capacity, and an expanded use of natural gas. Michigan is the country's sixth-largest consumer of the product.
''The vice president says he is for natural gas - he just doesn't like people to find it and move it to where it's needed,'' Bush said.
The governor also lambasted Gore's call for higher energy taxes to curb consumption, as well as his 1992 environmental treatise, ''Earth in the Balance.''
''`The internal combustion engine,' Mr. Gore wrote, and I quote, is `a mortal threat to the security of every nation that is more deadly than that of any military enemy we're ever again likely to confront,''' Bush said. ''To every worker in the auto industry, to the 1 million Midwesterners whose jobs depend on the auto industry, I say your work is literally the engine of our American economy.''
The first remark drew boos from the automakers; the second received cheers. Unlike the many blue-collar union workers who support Gore, the audience was largely composed of white-collar designers who are not unionized. Joining in the applause were Governor John Engler of Michigan, Governor Bob Taft of Ohio, and Governor Don Sundquist of Tennessee, all Republicans who run automaking states.
Looking overseas, Bush accused the administration of letting the Persian Gulf War coalition atrophy, with the country paying at the pump today.
''It is important to be friends with people when you don't need each other so that when you do, there is a strong bond of friendship,'' he said. ''I would remind our friends in the Persian Gulf that our relationships are not merely commercial, but strategic. It is America that protects the peace, America that safeguards their independence.''
