Oil reserve challenged in House

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming met to discuss opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to alleviate Americans' struggle with high gas prices. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) told the committee that average Americans will pay $2,370 per year on gas at current rates and said the White House for opposing measures that would bring immediate relief at the pump. He said the Reserve is 97 percent full, the most it has ever been, with 706 million barrels of oil.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) stated that she does not support releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. She said the Reserve is intended to respond to national emergencies when oil supplies are severed, nothing that a supply cut has not occurred. James May, president of the Air Transport Association, said the price of gas is an emergency for the families of 32,000 airline employees who have lost jobs due to tighter airline budgets. Markey said Democrats in Congress desire to help lower the cost of gas in ten to twenty days, contrasting this with Republican's calls for more drilling, an avenue he said would take ten to twenty years. Blackburn said Democrats have failed to develop a rational energy policy.

Kyle Simpson, policy director of Brownstein, said an announcement from the White House that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was being opened would instantly lower prices, citing past actions taken by President George H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush. Joe Romm of the Center for American Progress advocated releasing a portion of the Reserve to the market incrementally. He said if prices do not to drop upon release, the failed strategy would demonstrate how "useless" is the Reserve is. According to Romm, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's development stemmed from oil shortages caused by international conflict, saying that the modern globalized economy makes the risk of sudden oil shortages unlikely. Speaking passionately into his microphone, Romm stated that the current threat to the oil market is high prices, questioning the Reserve's purpose if current prices do not qualify for the release of oil.

Bush’s policy a “hoax”

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called global warming and energy policy “the issue of our time” at a press conference where she urged President Bush to relieve high gas prices by opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Pelosi said the SPR is 97 percent full, the highest it has ever been, and that Americans deserve access to gasoline purchased with their tax dollars. Pelosi, who made a similar request to Bush ten days ago, added that gas prices would have lowered by now if Bush had acted when she originally asked. Pelosi repeatedly stated that despite having two oil men in the White House, gas prices remain over $4.

Continuing, Pelosi said Bush’s energy policy have caused price spikes and discussed the democratic DRILL (Drill Responsibly In Least Lands) Act, an act that advocates increased developments in energy alternatives and minimal drilling. She noted that calls for off-shore drilling by Republicans will take ten years to enact and only lower prices by $0.02. Pelosi said this route would cause the average family to spend $57,000 on gas in the next decade. She called Bush’s solution to high energy prices a “hoax” and said a majority of Americans agree that increasing the development of alternative energies is a good way to decrease prices while building new jobs.

In reference to increased violence in Afghanistan, Pelosi criticized the White House for initially turning its attention towards Iraq, allowing the situation in Afghanistan to worsen. She said Democrats in Congress demand accountability from the military and the Executive Branch, adding that Bush is now realizing the commitment that is necessary to fight extremism in Afghanistan.

Pelosi rants about high oil prices, tells kids being speaker is “fabulous”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a briefing to speak with children and their parents on “Take Your Kid to Work Day,” but did not pass on an opportunity to allege President Bush of not doing enough to lower high gas prices beforehand.

Pelosi called on the President to suspend purchases of oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which she said could lower gas prices from anywhere between 5 to 24 cents a gallon. Speaker Pelosi said that more affordable gas prices would provide our economy with the “critical” first step it needs to rebuild our dreary financial situation.

Watching the Speaker interact with the children at the conference was both humorous and intriguing. Asking simplistic questions, as well as questions that their reporter parents wrote down for them to ask, the children forced Pelosi to discuss everything from her favorite baseball team (she said the San Francisco Giants) to how she would rate our economy on a scale of one to ten (she said, as an “optimist”, it was about a three).

One of the children asked Pelosi who the next President should be and she said “a Democrat.” She told the children that meeting the Pope last week was “thrilling and intellectually challenging” and that freedom of the press was one of the most important aspects of American democracy.