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President Obama Deflects and Punts Responsibility on Gasoline Price Increases

WASHINGTON, D.C., April 6, 2011 | Jill Strait
Despite gasoline prices steadily climbing towards $4 per gallon, threatening the livelihood of families and small businesses across the country, President Obama is refusing to take responsibility for any of his actions that have blocked American energy development. Furthermore, he is telling American people there is little than can be done about higher prices at the pump.

Today, during energy remarks in Pennsylvania, President Obama stated:

“I'm just going to be honest with you. There's not much we can do next week or two weeks from now...Gas prices? They're going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes, and that's going to take a couple of years to have serious effect.”

It’s not just about what President Obama can do tomorrow to address higher prices, it’s about what he’s done over the last two years to get us to this point.

President Obama has spent the past “couple of years” in office blocking American energy. There are fewer areas open to American energy development today then there were before President Obama took office. That’s a simple fact. He has canceled and delayed lease sales. That’s a simple fact. The Energy Information Association projects an overall decline in U.S. oil production by 110,000 barrels per day in 2011 and 130,000 barrels per day in 2012. That’s a simple fact.

Instead of moving our country forward, President Obama has moved our country backwards. This has cost jobs, raised prices, increased our reliance on volatile foreign countries and made us more vulnerable to disturbances in the world market.

The energy bills recently introduced by Chairman Doc Hastings would reverse the Obama Administration actions that have kept our American energy resources off-limits. They would end the Administration’s de facto moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, restart lease sales that the Administration canceled, and reverse the President’s moratorium on other offshore areas. These bills would cut foreign oil imports by a one-third and according to a leading economist create up to 1.2 million jobs long-term.