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CNN Live Today

New Trial for Andrea Yates; Senate Meets with Oil Executives; Tornado Victims Return Home

Aired November 09, 2005 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and take a look at what's happening now in the news.
Democrats celebrating victories in two governors' races. Democrat Senator Jon Corzine easily won the New Jersey governor's office. And in Republican-leaning Virginia, voters elected Democrat Tim Kaine and rejected his Democrat challenger. The GOP says don't read too much in those election results.

In world news, seven Iraqis are dead, four others are wounded following a suicide car bombing in Bagubah. That's about 40 miles north of Baghdad. A CNN stringer journalist at the blast site says four of the dead were police officers. In separate attacks in Baghdad, gunmen shot and killed two people, including a Sudanese diplomat.

A high school in Jacksboro, Tennessee, is closed for the rest of the week following a fatal shooting there yesterday. Police arrested a 15-year-old student in connection with the attack. An assistant principal died and two other administrators were wounded. No students were hurt and no motive has been released.

In Florida, more help is on the way for victims of Hurricane Wilma. Live pictures from Hollywood, Florida. Officials have instituted a food stamp program to help hurricane victims. Wilma struck Florida last month, knocking out power, damaging buildings, and leaving many people homeless.

And now to the developing story we are following out of Texas. Andrea Yates may get a new trial. Just last hour, a Texas appeals court refused to reconsider a ruling, one that had overturned her murder convictions. Police say Yates admitted she drowned her five children in the family bathtub in 2001. Her defense attorneys argued she was not guilty by reason of insanity. It's possible Yates' defense team will work out a plea agreement with prosecutors that would avoid a second trial.

I had a chance to talk with Yates' attorney just a short while ago. Here's George Parnham.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GEORGE PARNHAM, ANDREA YATES' ATTORNEY: Yes, Andrea is much, much better. She has been receiving, I think, the best care that the penitentiary system has available to it. The quality of care doesn't meet the standards in the civil community. But, she obviously is very aware of the tragedy and lives with it every day of her life.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAGAN: Yates' convictions were overturned because an expert witness gave false testimony. That concerned the TV show "Law and Order" and whether an episode had influenced Yates. It turns out that episode didn't exist.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PARNHAM: The forensic psychiatrist who was the state's expert witness, Park Diets (ph) testified falsely during the guilt or innocence phase. That testimony was used by the prosecution in cross- examining one of our experts, as well as in arguing to a jury that she was calculated and cold in doing what she did. That testimony, of course, was false, and the case was reversed.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAGAN: Yates could have been sentenced to death. Instead, she got life in prison.

Once again, we're watching live pictures from Capitol Hill. The Senate Energy Committee talking to the big five oil companies and their executives. Thinking back to what happened over the summer, consumers paying record prices for gasoline. And now the gas companies reporting they had record profits in the third quarter. Senators not happy about that, and they are putting executives on the hot seat today.

Hurricane Katrina and Rita drove some of those prices past the $3 mark late in the summer. Our Daniel Sieberg is in New Orleans this morning, talking with drivers about the high price of gasoline. Hello, Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn. It's starting to warm up here in Metairie, which is in Jefferson Parish. About a mile to my left is where the 17th Street levee broke. Very busy Shell station here. We've been talking to a few people this morning to sort of get an idea of what they're thinking of the price of gas.

We're going to talk right now to Sid (ph). Sid, you are from Metairie. And we were talking earlier about the price of gas. Do you feel it's artificially inflated in some way, or does it reflect the market?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it reflects the market. A lot to do with the war to begin with. And just, you know, it's supply and demand. And it's just, if there's a shortage, that's a lot to do with the war and production in the Gulf.

SIEBERG: What about the idea of perhaps some of these oil companies taking their profits and perhaps giving back to the consumers in some form, a rebate or helping with energy costs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they're making an exorbitant amount of money on it, then I think we should get a rebate.

SIEBERG: All right, Sid, thanks so much.

We're going to move down here and talk to a gentleman named Derek (ph). He runs a demolition company. Been getting a lot of work here, of course, in New Orleans, helping people with their homes. Derek, we were talking before about the price of gas. And you just filled up your tank. How much did you pay for filling up this truck behind you here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventy dollars on a full tank of gas.

SIEBERG: How much is that compared to what you usually pay? And is it hurting your business to pay these high prices?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is. And as a matter of fact, I normally pay like $51, and now I'm paying like $70.

SIEBERG: What do you think of taking some of these profits from these oil companies and perhaps giving them back to the consumers in some way, in the form of a rebate or lower prices for energy bills?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that would be the best thing to do. Because right now it's hurting everybody to have high gas prices and me losing my home and losing everything that I have, it's kind of difficult for me to be in the situation of paying high price on gas.

SIEBERG: Talk to me about that. Because you had your home affected by the hurricanes. Your business is helping people to try to get back on their feet, essentially. And is the gas price hurting you in terms of getting your business sort of off the ground and going?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it really is. I mean, due to everything that's going on, I mean, if the gas was cheaper, it would help out a lot. Because I have workers, and we're all from here, and we're trying to rebuild the city and everything. And if the gas was cheaper than what it is now, we would have a better chance to go and get our work done. But now I have to pick up everybody and everything and it's just a mess with the gas being so high.

SIEBERG: Thanks so much, Derek, for talking with us.

Daryn, incidentally, the price here at this Shell station, about $2.59, which is higher than the national average of about $2.43. So the people here are saying, you know, it's a little bit cheaper than it has been over the course of the summer, of course, but not enough for them to be happy about it. Back to you.

KAGAN: Daniel Sieberg, from Metairie, Louisiana. Thank you.

Let's go to your e-mail now and welcome back our couple of experts. Brad Proctor, the CEO of gaspricewatch.com. He is in Dayton, Ohio, this morning. And joining us from Phoenix, Craig Smith. His book about the oil industry is called "Black Gold Stranglehold." Welcome back, gentleman.

BRAD PROCTOR, CEO, GASPRICEWATCH.COM: Good to be back.

KAGAN: Let's go right to our viewer e-mail. The first one is from someone who calls himself Prince of Wheels. And let's get that e-mail. Do we have that ready to go? Well -- here we go.

OK, question: "Why can't the states consider gasoline and oil companies as utilities as we do electric and gas heating companies in Pennsylvania?" Craig?

CRAIG SMITH, AUTHOR, "BLACK GOLD STRANGLEHOLD": Well, in some cases, in an indirect way, they do. If you look at Wyoming and some of the northern states, they have energy taxes that they impose on companies that operate in their states. And a lot of those states don't have budget deficits as a direct result of it, Daryn.

But, you know, as we sat here and listened to some of the hearings, I find it interesting that we're blaming all of this on the big oil companies. We forget that prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we had wholesale prices of about $1.20 a gallon in March of 2005. They had run up to $1.90 a gallon prior to Katrina or Rita. And, then of course, they went well after $2 after the hurricane.

So I think what we're seeing here is a supply and demand issue. And I'm not sure it's fair to try and come up with all these new- fangled ways to overcome a very simple problem, and that is, increase the supply, increase the infrastructure, prices will come down.

KAGAN: Well, and Brad, this -- you know, your entire Web site is built on demand. The other half of that is people are paying these prices.

PROCTOR: Oh, absolutely. They have to go to work. You know, you can modify your habits a little bit, but generally there are things that you have to do in life. And people have to buy the gasoline. This is not a commodity that you can skip.

And, you know, the opportunity is here for, as Craig said -- let's look at this refining capacity. You know, what can they do to open up that refining capacity? But if you talk to big oil, they would say, you know, there's plenty of gas. People can go, you know, buy gas anywhere today. They may be paying a little higher price. But if we build five new refineries, all of a sudden gas is going to be down to, you know, $1.65, a gallon, they'll only be making a billion dollars in profits. And, you know, that's counterproductive to what they want to do.

So I mean, you know, they don't want to see -- you know, they like a tight supply because it allows them to keep the price up. And anybody -- that would be any business.

KAGAN: Craig, do you -- Craig, do you disagree that the big oil companies don't want to build more refineries?

SMITH: Are you asking me, Daryn?

KAGAN: Yes. SMITH: No, I think big oil companies, if they had the environmental restrictions that are so imposed on them lessened to some degree and were given the ability to build infrastructure, they'd be more than happy to do that.

You've got to remember these guys have been under a lot of heat, not just from Congress, but from the environmentalists, from conservationists. I mean, it's almost like we think Big Oil are bad guys. They're not bad guys. They give us the lifestyle that's second to none in the rest of the world with good energy and reliability resources.

So I think that -- I just hope these hearings, Daryn, that the initiatives that come out of them will be productive, and this won't just be a beat-up on the oil companies, because that's not going to get us anywhere in this equation.

KAGAN: Let's go ahead an go back to the e-mail. This next question, I believe, from Amanda in Alabama. She wants to know what the Energy Commission plans to do for the future. "We need to stop looking for oil, at oil for energy and come up with new ways to get our power."

Craig, what about alternative forms of energy?

SMITH: I think they should all be pursued -- wind, solar, nuclear, hybrids, fuel cells, hydrogen, I think all of those are important alternatives as we move forward, Daryn.

But I also don't think we should buy into this whole belief that we're running out of this resource, and therefore one day we're going to have to make the changeover. I think what we should do is what we've done in the past, and that's go out and pursue the proven reserves we know that exist, and then encourage exploration and the building of refineries and infrastructure to meet the demand.

Think about the Gulf. That's a perfect example. We're drilling wells down there. There's going to be $55 billion worth of investment that's made into the Gulf for new reserves. Why don't we take that template and moved forward across the United States.

You know, You did a wonderful graphic a short while ago. You should gasoline super high priced in California, very inexpensive in the Midwest, higher priced in the West Coast. Why is that? Because there's no refineries in Florida. There's no refineries in California. But in Missouri and Oklahoma, you have refineries. So why don't we use that and start to build refineries, start to build infrastructure -- I hate to sound like a broken record, but that's what we should be demanding from the oil companies. And I think if you do it the right way, they will want to be socially responsible, because they don't want to be a hated commodity. They want to have customers and have people happy with them.

KAGAN: Let's go back to the e-mail. This next e-mail is from Rich, wants to, "Who sets gasoline prices daily, and what drives the pricing mechanisms." Brad, we'll let you start with this one. How do you think this one works?

PROCTOR: Well, One of the big issues around that is the gasoline futures market. Gasoline is traded on an open market that, again, in theory, it levels the playing field, the idea there's various things they take into account in terms of pricing it.

One of the biggest issues we've seen when he hit that $3.05 number was the fact and fear and uncertainty of where -- you know, can we continue to keep the gasoline supply going? Are we going to run out of gasoline because the refineries are -- so this market reacts very rapidly to bad news, especially, you know, as hurricanes started to come up through the Gulf. They looked at that. It could have impacted the price. So a big issue is the gasoline futures.

Probably the biggest issue, though, should be the raw cost of the oil. That is the -- probably the biggest determinant of what's going on, and then the gasoline futures, what the industry is going to be paying for gasoline down the road will dictate what they need to be charging today.

KAGAN: All right, Brad, Craig, thank you.

We continue our coverage right now of what's taking place on Capitol Hill. Big Oil, big profits on the hot seat. More just ahead after this break.

Also more on Evansville, Indiana. Some of the folks who lost their homes allowed to go back for the first time today and salvage whatever they can find. We'll have more on that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We're getting some new pictures in from Evansville, Indiana. This is where that deadly twister struck early Sunday morning. A lot of the folks are being allowed to go back to the area for the first time since early Sunday morning and salvage what they can find of their belongings.

Our Ed Lavandera joins us as we look at these new pictures. He's on the phone with us from Evansville, Indiana -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, a very difficult morning, obviously for these residents here who are being allowed back in for the first time since this storm hit early Sunday morning. And what they're doing here in Evansville is kind of taking people in, in waves, if you will, kind of a couple streets at a time. So throughout the day, they'll continue to do this, and residents are going back.

We've seen them. They were bussed in. Some people we saw very emotional here as they were going through, basically wearing, gloves, jeans, and boots, and walking through rubble there and picking out what they can. You know, and it's an incredibly sad situation to see these folks having to pick up pictures muddied by rain and dirt, and looking for any little piece of belonging in an area that was completely leveled by this tornado that just cut a path right through this southern edge of this mobile-home park.

KAGAN: Besides their belongings, that what left are strewn all across that area, the governor, as I understand it, saying he expects it to be some time before these people have homes again.

LAVANDERA: Right, and right now they're in the process here in the area of trying to figure out some sort of way to provide housing, either whether it be temporary or just new permanent housing for these people, so that is efforts that are still under way.

This area was declared a federal disaster area yesterday by the president, so there are FEMA officials on the ground, walking through these neighbors with these people now, and that will be part of the process and part of thing that these folks will now qualify for, in terms of finding ways and be able to register for getting money to provide for new housing, whether it be temporary or not, but that process seems to be well under way here.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera, live on the phone with us from Evansville, Indiana, as we watch these pictures just coming into us here at CNN, the first chance for some of these tornado victims to go back and take what few of their own belongings they can still find and salvage. More on that ahead.

Also, pain at the pump for drivers. Oil company profits soaring at the same time, and lawmakers wants answers. Our coverage of the oil hearings on Capitol Hill continue after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A couple of stories we're following for you on this Wednesday morning. Andrea Yates, the Texas court system, the court of criminal appeals refusing to reconsider an lower ruling that overturned the capital murder convictions of Andrea Yates. There's a good chance that she'll be getting a new trial or perhaps there will be a plea agreement between prosecutors and her defense attorney.

Also, we're watching the pictures on the right side of your screen. Those are live pictures from Capitol Hill. CEOs, the chiefs of the biggest oil companies in the world and here in the U.S. are before the U.S. Senate, answering questions about their record profits for the third quarter of 2005.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is coming up next. You want to stay tuned for "YOUR WORLD TODAY." Jim Clancy and Zain Verjee will be along after a quick break.

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