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Valley residents ask Boehner why gas prices are so high
Sunday, April 27, 2008
WASHINGTON — In the midst of a weeklong fight over which political party was to blame for high gas prices, House Minority Leader John Boehner took to the phone lines with constituents for his second "telephone town hall."
The subject his constituents wanted to talk about, overwhelmingly, was high gas prices.
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Judith from Bradford wanted to know if the high prices of food and gas were indicative of an "economic tsunami." Mike from Tipp City wanted to know what the United States could do to open its oil reserves.
Pam from West Chester was plaintive. "High gas prices are killing me," she told Boehner. "Is there anything we can do to keep prices down?"
Boehner said the answer was a combination of solutions, including conserving more, using more alternative sources of fuel including nuclear energy and producing more oil and gas.
Of the 20 questions Boehner took during an almost hourlong call with about 300 constituents, seven involved high gas prices. Other questioners wanted to know about the war, jobs and health care. But if the questions indicate where the heart of the electorate lies, voters right now want answers to high energy prices.
That, perhaps, explains the focus on the issue in Congress. Leaders from both parties this week held press conferences focusing on the issue and blasting the other side for inaction.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., urged President Bush to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a stockpile of fuel that she said is now nearly 97 percent full. She said suspending deliveries could cut between five cents and 24 cents off a gallon of gas. "He can do it today and give a price break to consumers," she said.
She said she's also hoping for passage of legislation to hold OPEC accountable for oil price fixing as well as a bill cracking down on gas price gouging. And she also called for a law that would encourage energy independence.
"We will not be able to say to the American people with any assurance that we have the consumer in mind until and unless we have a new energy policy that reduces our dependence on foreign oil," she said. "As long as these OPEC countries are setting the price – and here we are trying to stop them and hold them accountable for price fixing – unless we do that, we're held hostage to their manipulations of the market."
Boehner, meanwhile, argued the Democrats haven't done enough.
"Two years ago today, the then-minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, said that the Democrats had a common-sense plan to lower gasoline prices," he said. "That was $1.25 ago and two years ago, and yet we've not seen this plan that will lower gasoline prices in any way, shape or form."
In a political season, we're bound to hear both parties claim that they hold the key to solving the gas price problem, or blame the other party for not doing more.
But it's not clear when the rhetoric will end and a solution will begin.
