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Obama Promises Lower Gas Prices and Defends Keystone XL DecisionBy Tara Dodrill | Yahoo! Contributor Network – Fri, Mar 23, 2012 President Obama signed an executive order earlier this week approving the Keystone XL pipeline connecting Cushing, Okla., to the Texas Gulf Coast, National Public Radio reports. Obama concluded his four-state energy tour at Ohio State University in Columbus on Thursday. While in Ohio, Obama toured an experimental "high-tech" automotive facility and viewed the "fasted electric car in the world," the Buckeye Bullet 2, according to the Columbus Dispatch. The automotive research center has garnered millions in federal funding for...

Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House panel Tuesday that he’d give himself top marks when asked to grade his policies’ effects on energy prices. Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked President Obama’s top energy official if he’d grade himself with an “A minus” on “controlling the cost of gasoline at the pump.” Chu responded by saying he’d give himself a better grade than that. “The tools we have at our disposal are limited, but I would I say I would give myself a little higher in that since I became...

A sharp jump in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February. But outside higher pump prices, inflation stayed mild. The Labor Department said Friday that the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent in February, the largest increase in 10 months. Gas prices rose 6 percent to account for most of the gain. Food prices were unchanged for the first time in 19 months. And excluding food and energy, so-called "core" prices rose just 0.1 percent. Mild inflation allows the Fed to maintain its low interest-rate policy. "Not much to stew about on the inflation front,"...

President Obama's Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, renounced his previously-stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels in order to motivate alternative energy research, telling the Senate today that he wants gas prices to fall for the sake of the economy. "We have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Chu said in 2008. When reminded of that comment today during his congressional testimony, Chu backed away from that position. "I no longer share that view," Chu told Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, today.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gas prices increased for the third straight day Friday, to an average of $1.626 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas, according to motorist group AAA. That's nearly a one-cent jump from the previous day's average of $1.618. The price of gas is down by nearly 20 cents from the prior month's average of $1.803, and prices are off by nearly 47%, or $3.052 from this time a year ago. Prices have plummeted along with the price of crude oil, the main ingredient in gas. Oil has shed more than $100 a barrel since July, and...

White House defends Obama on gas prices after poor poll numbersBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/12/12 01:41 PM ET Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took to the White House briefing room Monday to defend President Obama’s energy plan after a new poll suggested high gas prices are eroding the president’s approval numbers. Salazar insisted that Obama is reviewing short- and long-term actions to lower gas prices, while also noting that there are no quick fixes to the problem. “All options are on the table because the president obviously feels the pain that the American people are facing,” Salazar said when asked if...

Newt Gingrich predicts high gas prices will 'crater' the economyBy Vicki Needham - 03/04/12 05:41 PM ET Former House Speaker and GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich hit the president again on Sunday over rising gas prices, saying that increasing pump prices would "crater" the economy by August. “The price of gasoline is becoming a genuine crisis for many American families. If it continues to go higher, it will crater the economy by August because people will have no discretionary income,” said Gingrich on CNN’s State of the Union. Republicans along with Gingrich have hammered Obama over rising gas costs, demanding...

Obama campaign: Consumers ‘don’t blame’ the president for gas pricesBy Ben Geman - 03/02/12 10:26 AM ET A top official with President Obama’s reelection campaign expressed confidence Friday that consumers won’t punish Obama politically for rising gas prices and touted “significant accomplishments” on energy, including tougher auto mileage rules. “They don’t blame the president. They understand what’s going on with the global marketplace,” said Stephanie Cutter, the president’s deputy campaign manager, on MSNBC. “But they also acknowledge that we have to do everything we can to make sure that America is independent and not tied to foreign oil and they...

Worried Dems pressing Obama on gas pricesBy Alexander Bolton - 02/28/12 09:45 PM ET Congressional Democrats are ramping up pressure on President Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to prevent rising gas prices from threatening the economy and their election-year prospects. They are growing anxious that the price of fuel could reverse their political fortunes, which had been improving due to signs of growth in the economy. Republicans have hammered Democrats on the price spike, repeatedly noting that gas prices — now at $3.72 per gallon for regular — have doubled since Obama won the White House. House...

.........America’s economy is intrinsically aligned with fuel prices because the lifeblood of our economy is oil. Four-dollar-a-gallon gas will not just sting at the pump but also will put the squeeze on every American for milk and cookies at the grocery store and every product we purchase because they are all delivered to stores by truck. ...As gas prices continue to rise, consumer debt probably also will rise as American families, already strapped for cash, will use credit cards to pay for the increased fuel costs. Ultimately, higher gas prices put the squeeze on all things related to the economy,...

Nothing new here. Remember, O’s very first campaign ad of the year was also aimed at the Kochs. Until the GOP chooses a nominee, the Emmanuel Goldstein brothers will have to do as the designated root of all political evil. Look at it from Obama’s perspective: What’s more likely to get a shrieking leftist to open his wallet, some perfunctory grumbling about Mitt “Meh” Romney or a dire new warning about just how far the Kochtopus’s tentacles extend? The title of the fundraising e-mail, no joke: “They’re obsessed.” In just about 24 hours, Mitt Romney is headed to a hotel...

'The American people aren't stupid," thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami, ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let's hope he's right, because not even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell. To wit, that a) gasoline prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy. Where...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Tensions with Iran are adding at least 30 cents to a gallon of gasoline in the United States, and experts say gas prices have only just begun to rise. Gasoline prices have surged over 10% in the last two months, largely tracking the runup in oil prices, which have increased by a similar amount and are now at a 9-month high. Several factors have caused oil prices to rise, including the sense that the economy is improving and supply disruptions in a handful of minor oil producing nations. But the biggest factor by far, say analysts,...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is confronting Americans' anxiety over rising gasoline prices by drawing attention to his energy policies and taking credit for rising oil and gas production, a greater mix of energy sources and decreased consumption. Obama is heading to Florida on Thursday to promote an energy strategy that the administration says will reduce dependence on foreign oil in the long term. But Obama's pitch will also have a subtext: that the federal government can do little to halt the current rise in gasoline prices. Obama will speak at the University of Miami and tour the school's Industrial...

Gas prices mentioned in 97 stories in one month of 2008 coverage, compared to just 21 in 2012. Rising gas prices used to be big news, but not so these days. Although the national average climbed to $3.56 on Feb. 20, setting a February record after going up nearly a month straight, there was far less coverage than in 2008. Broadcast networks repeatedly covered the rise under the Bush presidency. Gas prices bounced around eventually reaching $3.56-a-gallon on April 24, 2008. The Business and Media Institute analyzed broadcast network news references to gas or fuel prices between Jan. 20 and...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will deliver a speech on energy and rising gas prices Thursday at the University of Miami, FOX News Channel reported. White House officials told FOX the president will lay out an "all of the above" approach to the nation's energy security that he has previously outlined and will tout the fact that domestic oil production has risen on his watch while imports have decreased. Gas prices have continued to climb in recent months, surpassing $4 per gallon in some areas. According to the Automobile Association of America's (AAA) Daily Fuel Gauge Report, the average price...

Can Americans Handle $150 Oil? February 21, 2012Douglas A. McIntyre The International Energy Agency said Europe could “cope” with a supply shortage brought on by a drop in imports of crude from Iran, but that prices might temporarily reach near the $147 a barrel peak of 2008. The chief of large energy firm Vitol told the Financial Times that crude could reach and stay at $150. It is not entirely possible to determine what oil at $140 or $150 would do to the average American household budget, but a look at Census data suggests that the effects would be harsh....

Ridiculously High Gas Prices Expected To Hit Major US Cities By Memorial Day Calculated Risk Febuary 19, 2012 From the Mercury News: Gas prices surging beyond $4 a gallon -- and they will go higher Gasoline prices are rising at an almost unheard-of pace, and painfully so in California, where the cost for a fill-up now exceeds $4 a gallon in five cities and is approaching that dreaded mark in numerous others, including San Jose and Oakland. The statewide average of $3.96 on Friday is 25 cents higher than just a month ago and 46 cents more than this time...

Gas Prices Expected To Soar 60 Cents: How That Impacts Your BudgetBy: Diane Lee | News Channel 7 Updated: February 06, 2012 - 4:32 PM GREENVILLE, S.C. - For 16 years John and Clare Coulis have driven the 1200 mile journey to Ontario and back every May. When they started, gas was under a dollar. Now... "I think I want to occupy BP," he said with a laugh. In all seriousness, it is slated to get worse. Analysts predict prices will sour 60 cents from now until May. The main reasons: Oil refiners have cut back on production because of...

So far, during the presidency of Barack Obama, the price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 83 percent, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (AP Photo) During the same period, the price of ground beef has gone up 24 percent and price of bacon has gone up 22 percent. When Obama entered the White House in January 2009, the city average price for one gallon of regular unleaded gasoline was $1.79, according to the BLS. (The figures are in nominal dollars: not adjusted for inflation.) Five months later in June, unleaded gasoline was $2.26 per gallon,...