Election 2012: Will high gas prices exact a political price?
Enlarge This Image
Alaska News Features
Rising gasoline prices represent Republicans’ latest vector of attack on President Obama, as improving economic data make more difficult a head-on assault on the administration’s economic policies.
“Over the past few weeks, the American people have begun to feel the painful effects of President Obama’s energy policy,” Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday in a statement. “Make no mistake: The rising price of gasoline isn’t simply the result of forces we can’t control.”
The national average for US gasoline prices reached $3.72 on Monday, according to the Energy Information Administration, up more than 3 percent from the prior week and up about 10 percent from a year ago.
What could Mr. Obama do to help, according to GOP leaders? At the top of their agenda is reversing his permit denial for the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, a 1,660-mile system that would carry oil from Canadian tar sands to the American Gulf Coast. Other Republican complaints include the need to drill more aggressively in the Gulf of Mexico and to nix regulatory red tape.
But such energy projects would take years to produce any actual oil or gasoline. How would they give Americans relief at the pump in the short term?
House Speaker John Boehner argued Tuesday that a US energy policy that includes a more vigorous approach to production would signal a serious US intent to become more energy independent and, thus, would help drive prices down for consumers.
“The more that we can do to show the American people and show the world that we’re going to move toward energy self-sufficiency, I think that you’ll begin to see prices on the world market coming down,” he said during a briefing, in which House Republicans hammered the president over rising prices at the pump.
Obama’s response
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/election-2012-will-high-gas-prices-exact-political-price
Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=12186
Posted by RobertButler
on Feb 28 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
[...] have grasped what they see as a political opportunity. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday: “Over the past few weeks, the American people have begun to feel the painful effects of [...]
[...] have grasped what they see as a political opportunity. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday: “Over the past few weeks, the American people have begun to feel the painful effects of [...]
[...] have grasped what they see as a political opportunity. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday: “Over the past few weeks, the American people have begun to feel the painful effects of [...]