Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that he expects President Obama will talk to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia about rising oil prices:
Q: Robert, oil prices hit $68 a barrel today -- very substantially up in recent weeks. When the President goes to Saudi Arabia, is [he] going to talk to King Abdullah about that? Is he going to express concern?
GIBBS: Well, we'll have a readout exactly of what's done and said in the meeting, but as I said last week I assume that's something that will indeed be on the docket next -- later this week -- sorry, I'm getting my weeks mixed up.
On April 22nd, President Obama expressed support for domestic oil and natural gas production:
“It's going to take a variety of energy sources, pursued through a variety of policies, to drastically reduce our dependence on oil and fossil fuels. As I've often said, in the short term, as we transition to renewable energy, we can and should increase our domestic production of oil and natural gas. We're not going to transform our economy overnight. We still need more oil, we still need more gas. If we've got some here in the United States that we can use, we should find it and do so in an environmentally sustainable way.”
However, his 2010 budget proposal includes measures that would discourage American-made oil and gas production.
On February 10th, Secretary Salazar announced a decision to delay the 5-year plan for oil and gas development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf.
Republicans support an all-of-the-above energy strategy that includes renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydropower, nuclear and biomass, and American-made oil and natural gas.
