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Rep. Markey Calls on Bush to End to National Nightmare of Skyrocketing Gas Prices By Releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

By: Ed Markey
By: Ed Markey
Date: July 12, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Oil and Gas


REP. MARKEY CALLS ON BUSH TO END THE NATIONAL NIGHTMARE OF
SKYROCKETING GAS PRICES BY RELEASING THE STRATEGIC
PETROLEUM RESERVE
"Gasoline Prices are Tipping Consumers and Businesses
Upside Down" says lawmaker

WASHINGTON, D.C. -Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democratic
Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, today issued the following
statement in response to record high gasoline prices in the peak of summer travel.
According to the Lundberg Survey gas prices surged nearly a dime over the past two
weeks to an all-time high of $2.31 per gallon, beating a previous record set in April.

"President Bush's Energy policy has managed to lead the country into rare territory,
where we have simultaneously both the highest real gasoline prices and the lowest
average automobile fuel economy since the mid-1980s. Combine that with a lowconservation,
high-consumption message from the White House, and we are headed for
big trouble.

"If the President is betting on high gas prices to reduce consumption, he's losing the bet
and American consumers and small businessmen are being tipped upside down and
having money shaken out of their pockets to pay off the losses. About two-thirds of the
oil that we consume in this country goes into gasoline tanks. Unless the President starts
to show some leadership now and takes action to force cars, SUVs, and minivans to
become more fuel-efficient, America will remain at the mercy of high gas prices and
increased dependency on imported oil. While this Administration is keen to sell off the
few energy assets we have to China, they are doing nothing to address the immediate
price of gas.

"In the short term, however, there's only one thing the President could do that would
bring immediate price relief to American consumers - deploy the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve. But the President has previously refused to do that. He should reconsider that
failed policy immediately and announce that he is going to deploy the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve right now to help drive prices down."

http://www.house.gov/markey/Issues/iss_energy_pr050712.pdf

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