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Obama to address energy prices in Friday news conference
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03/10/11 08:32 PM ET
President Obama will hold a news conference Friday morning to address concerns about rising energy prices.
The White House made the announcement late Thursday evening, capping off a day where the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, aiming to translate rising gas prices into political momentum, ramped up attacks on the administration’s energy policies.
“The Obama administration has consistently blocked American energy production that would lower costs and create new jobs,” Boehner said in announcing that House Republicans will focus heavily on the matter in coming weeks and months.
“Americans looking at the price of gas at the pump these days are justifiably upset. What they may not realize is that some in the administration are actively working to prevent us from increasing our own oil production here at home,” McConnell said in lengthy remarks on the Senate floor.
The GOP goals range from faster permitting of deepwater Gulf of Mexico projects, which were halted after the BP spill, to advancing drilling in Arctic water off Alaska, where Shell Oil for years has been seeking a green light to look for oil.
Republicans also say the Obama administration is impeding onshore drilling in western states.
The GOP attacks are increasing — Republican lawmakers are all over the cable channels echoing similar sentiments of late — at a time when turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa have pushed oil prices to their highest levels in more than two years.
Oil prices reached almost $107 in trading Monday but have since fallen somewhat.
Markets continued to jump around Thursday in response to Middle Eastern developments. Oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell to $100.62, their lowest level in a week, before settling at $102.70 per barrel.
And the Dow closed below 12,000 on Thursday, which analysts said was because of worries about the oil market and the conflict in Libya.
Average gasoline prices are $3.53 per gallon, compared to $3.12 a month ago, according to the American Automobile Association, and the Energy Department’s statistical arm estimated Tuesday that there is a 25 percent chance that average prices will top $4 per gallon this summer.
Voters seem to expect the worst. One out of two believe their gas prices will rise by at least 75 cents a gallon this year, a new poll from Gallup found.
Against this backdrop, Boehner said House Republicans were launching an “American Energy Initiative” to move a series of energy bills on issues including expanding domestic oil-and-gas production.
Democrats, however, quickly hit back with allegations that GOP plans won’t help consumers. “The drill, baby, drill mantra won’t reduce our oil dependency, and it won’t provide relief from volatile oil prices either,” said Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.).
Drilling opponents often point to projections by the federal Energy Information Administration that opening up large swaths of the Atlantic, Pacific and eastern Gulf of Mexico would have an insignificant effect on prices.
And Democrats are rushing to counter the attacks with a flurry of their own proposals.
Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and several other Democrats have been calling on the administration to draw from the 727-million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
They introduced a bill Thursday that would direct the Energy Department to release 30 million barrels of oil and gradually replace it with refined products like gasoline.
And several vulnerable House Democrats — led by Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), who narrowly won last November — have introduced a bill to eliminate fuel price “gouging” by boosting the authority of the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to crack down.
The bill's co-sponsors are Democratic Reps. Jerry McNerney (Calif.), Tim Walz (Minn.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Bruce Braley (Iowa), John Yarmuth (Ky.) and Ben Chandler (Ky).
White House officials have taken pains during the price spikes to note they understand the impact of high prices on families, and they emphasized that the administration supports domestic production.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney noted at a briefing Wednesday that domestic oil production reached its highest levels last year since 2003.
However, production is expected to decline in 2011 and 2012, in part because of limits on Gulf of Mexico drilling imposed after the BP disaster.
The Interior Department last week issued the first deepwater drilling permit for the type of project that had been halted by the post-BP ban that was lifted in October, it and says more permits coming. The agency is forcing drillers to meet a suite of beefed-up safety rules.
McConnell, for his part, reiterated the GOP’s mantra that an “all-of-the-above” energy approach is needed that would “capitalize on the abundant resources we already have right here at home” while also boosting alternative sources.
But Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said the GOP leadership has yet to coalesce around a specific bill.
“We very much understand that the American people are extraordinarily concerned about the increasing cost of gasoline and heating oil and so on, we are very much in favor of the policies that we have supported in the past for increased exploration for oil and gas and the ability to produce it offshore, Alaska, federal lands,” he told The Hill.
“But there hasn’t been a decision to offer a particular bill or anything like that,” Kyl said. “We all agree with what we would like to see achieved, but there has not been a plan, a particular plan of action, legislatively,” he added.
— Andrew Restuccia, Bernie Becker and Sean J. Miller contributed
