Truckers protest fuel prices in capital

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- A truck drivers' Washington protest of fuel costs largely fizzled in the rain Monday but their horn-blowing was not unheard, various politicians said.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said the drivers were "fighting back to maintain their livelihoods," The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

"We must pay attention to their concerns about the escalating cost of fuel," he said.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said "Americans are feeling pain at the pump" and said allowing oil company tax breaks was getting harder to justify.

Truckers are paying on average $4.24 per gallon for diesel fuel but analysts said the price of crude oil, setting records nearly every week this year, would probably not abate soon.

President of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Chakib Khelil said recently oil prices, now at nearly $120 a barrel, could reach $200 a barrel.

Rain and rising crude oil prices aside, "I may be all wet, but I haven't given up yet," trucker William Herr told the Post.