Posted on 08/19/2005 5:06:12 PM PDT by JRP0322
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats turned up the heat on the White House on Friday to act in the face of record-high U.S gasoline pump prices.
The same day, the Senate Energy Committee set a September 8 hearing on what's behind the prices, which hit a record $2.55 a gallon this week.
That's about 68 cents higher than just a year ago and the biggest weekly increase on record, which has triggered fears that high energy costs could hurt U.S. economic growth.
Lawmakers admit there is no short-term fix to pain at the pump, but are nervous about political fall-out. Gasoline prices are sure to be a hot topic when Congress returns from its recess next month.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, warned this week that high gasoline prices have stunted U.S. consumer spending.
"Today's gasoline prices are taking a severe toll on Americans' pocketbooks," said Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, energy panel chairman. "Consumers are anxious."
The hearing will focus on global oil demand, refinery capacity constraints and the impact of futures market speculation on energy prices, Domenici said.
The panel said it has not set its witnesses.
Meanwhile, Democrats urged the White House to act.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday said the Bush administration should require U.S. oil companies to disclose their fuel pricing policies and production costs.
In a letter to the White House, Reid also said the Federal Trade Commission should investigate instances where a state's retail prices rise 20 percent in any given week "to determine if the price of gasoline is being artificially manipulated."
Past FTC probes into U.S. oil company pricing policies have found no sign of abuse.
"This one has already being done," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. "The FTC and the Justice Department have been keenly watching for this type of activity for the past two years."
Duffy also said that Democrats' attempts to prevent oil drilling in the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, have kept supplies tight.
"Commonsense steps we've tried to take, like increasing domestic oil production by allowing drilling in a small portion of ANWR, have been blocked by Democrats for years," Duffy said.
Separately, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said the White House should ask oil companies for a voluntary, temporarily freeze on prices that they charge gasoline distributors.
Duffy said that price controls in any form are "terribly toxic to the economy" but added he had not seen the specific proposal.
The American Petroleum Institute, the biggest industry lobbyist, said U.S. oil companies are not benefiting unduly from high energy prices, and said that global crude oil shortages and oil prices near $70 a barrel are to blame.
It costs about $2 a gallon for U.S. refiners to turn crude oil into gasoline before transportation and distribution costs are added, said John Felmy, an API economist.
"When you take all those costs out you're not finding unreasonable profits for everything we have to do to get (gasoline) to consumers," Felmy said. "These requests are just unfortunate."
U.S. consumers use about 9 million barrels of gasoline a day -- about 380 million gallons worth.
Ever penny increase in gasoline prices means that U.S. consumers pay about $1.39 billion extra at the pump each year, according to Senate Energy Committee data.
You'd think the Democrats would finally admit that the gas prices prove that their claim that the Iraqi liberation was "all for cheap oil" was nothing but an asinine lie.
But nooooooooooo...now they want government subsidies for gas!
DemoCraps turn up the heat uon themselves. Who is it that blocks oil drilling in the US ? DemoCraps, that's who. Are they really this stupid ? Yes they are !
I see someone beat me to the post sorry for the double post....
| FINDING DEAL$ ON GA$OLINE: |
OK, but what to do about it, short of price controls?
When they block ANWR it is going to look real good. No one is fooled my friend, the RATS are deslusional.
Don't forget Norm Coleman....
I'm with you, BUT, if they did this, they know they would never be able to reinstantiate the taxes. Once the public got used to the real price of fuel minus the taxes, the public would not tolerate the reintroduction of the government gouging at the pump and that scares the libs to death.
Boy it takes a lot of sand to whine about gas prices when your own party stands in the way of drilling.
Congress should start by declaring an emergency and allowing the drilling of oil in federal waters off California and Florida. The federal government owns the leases and it is perfectly legal to do so. Why should the enviro-nazis and federal judges endanger the welfare of our nation by keeping oil production off of federal territory? We'll be waiting to see how serious the Congress really thinks this is or whether they will simply be posturing for the msm as usual.
"I hate to say it, but i'm glad somene is gettin the message."
One of the stupidest things Kerry did was not bring up high prices during his campaign.
I suppose the down side for him was he would be asked what his plan for lower prices was, and he would be cornered into revealing he had none - just like he had no plans for anything.
I am interested to see what is found out about "speculation" on the price of oil. The dumping of hedge fund dollars into oil futures is new and might be a new factor keeping prices high for a long time.
Noticeably Bush admin has not been explaining the reasons for the oil price increase to the public.
my big concern is that people let this one thing affect thier view at the polls.
I dare any pol to vote no on ANWR.
You are right, and also that they are the ones responsible. They are the ones preventing us from drilling, and they are the ones passing all the emissions standards which drive of the price due to cost of refining.........47 different gasolines!!!!!! Not to mention the incresed cost of distributing it. They are the ones taxing the crap out of gas in states, above and beyond the price of gas!! Heck, just eliminate, even if temporarily, the state taxes on gas, and it would be a heck of a lot cheaper!! Then get the Governors together, and cone up with a uniform emissions standard!
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