Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cited testimony on the Senate floor Tuesday to make the case that excessive market speculation has driven up oil prices by 50 percent.
But the problem is that one of the experts he cited was discredited weeks ago by a Senate subcommittee, chaired by a senior Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.).
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took to the floor Tuesday and pressed Reid to provide his source to make that claim since "that is the first time I had heard that figure."
Reid shot back: "Mr. President, I would say to my friend, if it is the first time you have heard it, with all due respect, you have not been listening to what has been going on on the Senate floor."
Reid continued: "I am not the only one who has said it. Many people have said it. I would be happy to place in the record -- and the first person we will place in the record is somebody who was a high-ranking official with the commodity futures trading organization, where he says it is 50 percent."
Reid citied Michael Greenberger, a former trade division director at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in saying that prices have shot up 20 percent to 50 percent because of speculation.
But Levin's Senate Subcommittee on Investigations issued an unusual June report discrediting Greenberger's testimony on oil speculation, questioning 19 statements he made on the issue before the committee last month.
Republicans crowed on Wednesday about the report as they attacked a stalled Democratic bill that would rein in speculation on oil futures.
But Democratic aides said there are numerous other experts who back up the concerns that speculation is significantly affecting prices. For instance, Reid spokesman Rodell Mollineau pointed to a comment made by economist Mark Zandi, now a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain.
"The oil market has become a financial market. And it's affected by all kinds of speculators, momentum players, people just betting on prices increasing or falling, in this case, obviously, increasing," Zandi said on PBS last month. "And so they ran in quickly and drove up the price. And that clearly has played a role. I mean, you don't see a $10 move in the price of oil without some financial speculation involved, as well."
"I think the larger question is why are the Republicans now running away from an issue that they put in their own legislation," Mollineau said. "To answer my own question, they were never serious about actually passing energy legislation -- just having an issue to campaign on."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who recently visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a group of House Republicans, lamented John McCain's opposition to drilling for oil there.
"It's difficult when our nominee is not on the same page with us," said Bachmann in an interview with Townhall.com's Matt Lewis.
The Republicans' trip was aimed at calling greater attention to the need for more domestic energy sources. Bachmann and other members of the trip, including House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), have called for oil drilling in the Alaskan wildlife area.
"I believe if Sen. McCain could come to the area and listen to the people who live there -- I believe that he might likely change his mind," Bachmann said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Texas oil magnate T.Boone Pickens are now "pals."
This, from Reid himself, at a press conference Thursday on energy prices. Diverting from Democratic leaders' message on an oil speculation bill, Reid told reporters he unexpectedly found himself sitting next to Pickens at a June 17 Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.
Pickens, who has called for more U.S. investment in wind energy, has long been an ardent political foe of Reid, having helped fund George W. Bush's campaigns for president and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. But Reid said the two are joined at the hip on the idea of seeking alternative energy.
"He's done everything he could to defeat me every time I've run," Reid said. "He was my mortal enemy. He's my pal now. T. Boone Pickens is a rich man because of oil... But he's not only talking about the problems
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) plan to lower gas prices Wednesday, calling her proposal "silly" and "absurd."
"Nobody's going to believe that any of these proposals they're talking about are real," McConnell said on Fox. "That silly proposal to open up 10 percent of the Strategic Reserve is about three and a half days worth of oil."
Pelosi asked President Bush earlier this week to release a "small portion" of the more than 700 million barrels of oil currently being held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
McConnell, like Bush, favors a lifting of drilling bans offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"We're sitting on a sea of oil, both onshore and offshore," McConnell said. "We know what to do. We need to go about it."
Pelosi has called the GOP plan to lift drilling bans a "hoax."
"It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas," Pelosi said Monday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) linked Tuesday's drop in oil prices to the president's push for more domestic oil drilling.
McConnell, on Fox News on Wednesday, noted that the price of an oil barrel had dropped $8. The price had fallen by about $6 a barrel by the close of Tuesday's markets.
"The new development was the president lifted the executive branch moratorium on offshore drilling the day before," McConnell said.
He repeated President Bush's call on Congress to do its part to lift the drilling ban.
"The American public understands that we're the number three oil producer in the world, that we're sitting on a sea of oil, both onshore and offshore that is locked up and has been locked up for a number of years," he said. "This new majority here in control of Congress ought to understand that the for its 14 percent approval rating is that it's not doing anything serious about the problem."
The rating McConnell referred to comes from Gallup's most recent survey. The rating is the lowest for Congress in the Gallup Poll's history.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pushed back against Republican calls for more domestic offshore drilling by suggesting that Republicans go along with Democratic proposals.
"Republicans now have a little -- cute little button some of them are wearing, 'Find more, use less.' Well, if they're really interested in solving the crisis, I think what they should do is act more and talk less," Reid said.
Democrats are calling on oil companies to drill more in areas where they already have permits to explore. Democrats also want to use more oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve and crackdown on oil speculators.
Below is a sign made by Senate Republican with their "Find more, use less" battle cry.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) called for more oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but he wouldn't commit to domestic offshore drilling elsewhere.
"Look, I think the first thing we ought to do is focus on the gulf," Conrad said when asked by CNN's John Roberts Tuesday whether companies should be able to drill off the East and West coasts. "[The gulf is] where the experts tell us the richest opportunities lie. Part of the gulf is open. Part of it is not. I think we ought to focus on that gulf area that is so rich in possibility."
Conrad appeared on television with Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Both said they're members of a "Gang of 10" senators that is seeking a bipartisan solutions to rising energy costs. The other members of the group are Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Chambliss is a strong supporter of calls by John McCain, President Bush and other Republicans for more domestic drilling.
Barack Obama has said that more domestic drilling would do little in the short term to stem the rise of gas prices. Conrad, an early Obama supporter, noted that Obama backed a push last year to drill more in the gulf.
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) pushed back against President Bush's call on Congress to lift the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, suggesting that Bush is just as wrong on drilling as he was on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
"Today President Bush is invoking the specter of another WMD: wells of mass deception," Markey said at a press conference Monday. "The president's own press spokeswoman said earlier today that today's announcement by the president will change nothing, since all of the legislative moratoria on offshore drilling remain in place. The Bush oil policy is an attempt at mass deception by a White House that has, for the last seven and a half years, pursued Big Oil's agenda of drill, drill, drill."
Markey said that drilling has failed to make the country independent from foreign energy sources and hasn't prevented rising gas prices.
He echoed Democratic calls for more drilling in areas where it's allowed, instead of in areas offshore that where exploration is prohibited under federal law.
"The Democrats are saying, no, instead of drilling off the beaches of our country, drill into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve," Markey said. "Drill where we have the oil right now, 700 million barrels. Begin to deploy upwards of 500,000 barrels a day into the marketplace, directed at the speculators, at the manipulators, at OPEC, at the oil industry."
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is warming to the idea of lifting the federal ban on domestic offshore oil drilling, reports the Columbus Dispatch.
Brown had been an opponent of lifting the ban, saying that it would do little in the short-term to lower the price of gas.
Republicans, including John McCain, have pushed for the end to the ban. They have said that more drilling is needed to move the country away from a dependence on foreign oil.
Barack Obama has opposed the lifting of the ban, but he is receiving pressure from at least one prominent liberal blogger to change course. MyDD's Jerome Armstrong suggested Friday that Obama and Democratic leaders accept a more drilling in a package that includes non-carbon energy solutions.
Most Viewed RSS Feed »
