President Bush today tackles the politically charged issue of soaring gasoline prices, which Republicans and Democrats are furiously trying to blame on each other.
“We’ve got to get off Middle Eastern oil,” Bush said Monday. “It’s a problem.”
But the president, who gives a speech on gasoline prices this morning in Washington, acknowledged that energy independence will take “10 to 20 years.” In the shorter term, rising gasoline prices are becoming a major issue in advance of the November congressional elections.
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. jumped to $2.90 a gallon on Monday, up a penny from a day earlier. Meanwhile, the price of crude oil dropped below $75 a barrel, thanks mainly to profit-taking by investors.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties met Monday in Doha, Qatar, and decided not to increase its current output of 28 million barrels a day. OPEC ministers seemed resigned to their inability to rein in skyrocketing prices, which are driven in large part by voracious demand from China and India.
Democrats said they planned to focus on consumers’ pain at the pump as the summer driving season draws near.
“At the same time oil companies are experiencing record profits, America’s families are being hit hard by record prices at the gas pump,” Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday.
“The price of gas has increased 100 percent since 2001. It exceeds $3 in many regions of the country and is expected to rise still higher this summer,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said Monday that he and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., will ask the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to investigate possible price-gouging by oil companies.
“There is more to do on this front as well, and we will be debating options for bringing prices down in the short term,” Frist said. “In the long term, however, if we are to protect ourselves from price spikes like we are currently seeing, America must reduce its dependence on foreign oil.”
In the meantime, the U.S. must make sure that foreign and domestic oil supplies are protected from terrorist attacks, said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. “It is important that we enhance the physical security of our facilities,” Bodman told reporters at an OPEC meeting in Doha.
