WASHINGTON -- Another politician has voiced his displeasure over high gasoline prices and over what he perceives as price manipulation and collusion on the part of government and oil companies. U.S. Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), in remarks on the House floor last week, challenged the Bush administration on rising gasoline prices saying, I want to know what the administration is doing to combat this problem.
He added, When the price of a barrel of oil goes up, gasoline prices go up, but when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down, gasoline prices [image-nocss] still go up.
Engel said that every day his constituents and people all around America go to a gas station to put gasoline in their cars and see that the prices are rising and rising and rising to a point of ridiculousness.
Americans, he claimed, remember the gasoline prices started dropping conveniently just before the last election in 2006. Is it a coincidence? I don't know, but certainly I do know that nothing is happening, and every single day Americans are feeling the pinch at the pump.
Engel, a senior member of the Energy & Commerce Committee, has introduced bipartisan legislation, the DRIVE Act, intended to wean Americans off imported gasoline by 2.5 million gallons per day by 2015 and by five million barrels daily by 2025. It is also intended to encourage biofuels production and the manufacture of cars that can use a variety of fuels and hybrids that use electricity.
He concluded, I don't know if it's collusion. I just know its wrong, and prices should be dropping when the cost of a barrel of oil goes down, not getting higher.
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