Posted on 04/24/2006 6:47:55 PM PDT by xzins
Bush Orders Probe Into Gas Price Cheating By NEDRA PICKLER ASSOCIATED PRESS
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) - President Bush is trying to calm Americans' outrage over soaring gas prices by ordering an investigation into whether the price of gasoline has been illegally manipulated, his spokesman said Monday.
During the last few days, Bush asked his Energy and Justice departments to open inquiries into possible cheating in the gasoline markets, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Bush planned to announce the action Tuesday during a speech in Washington.
Bush is under pressure to do something about gas prices that have reached nearly $3 a gallon. In a new CNN poll, 69 percent of respondents said gasoline price increases had caused them personal hardship. Other polls suggest that voters favor Democrats over Republicans on the issue, and President Bush gets low marks for handling gas prices.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., urged Bush in a letter Monday to order a federal investigation into any gasoline price gouging or market speculation.
Bush was working on the speech aboard Air Force One as he flew home Monday evening from a four-day trip to California that ended with a swing through Las Vegas. McClellan outlined part of the speech to reporters traveling on the plane.
McClellan said Bush also will announce that his attorney general and Federal Trade Commission will send a letter to all 50 state attorneys general, who have primary authority over price gouging, to remind them to stay on top of the issue and offer federal help to do so. And he will call on energy companies to reinvest their profits into expanding refining capacity, developing new technologies and researching alternative energy sources.
"I think you'll hear the president say very clearly that he will not tolerate price gouging," McClellan said.
Bush has consistently said that gas prices are high because global demand is rising faster than global supply and that the problem cannot be solved overnight. McClellan said Bush will talk about how experts predict that the price is expected to increase this summer and how the switch to a summer fuel mix is contributing to the problem.
Bush's actions are part of a four-part plan to address gas prices in the short- and long-term, McClellan said. The steps McClellan outlined are:
1. making sure consumers and taxpayers are treated fairly;
2. promoting greater fuel efficiency;
3. boosting gasoline supply at home;
4. aggressive long-term investment in alternative fuels.
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On the Net:
White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov
Bush really needs to get ahead of this one. Great opportunity to put the flaming tire of ANWR around the necks of the Democrats.
Too late to get ahead of it, but there's still time to do some grade A pandering, which is what this will be all about. Not that I blame him. They don't call it politics for nothing.
Talk is cheap. It always has been, when it comes to politicians. Washington continues to fiddle, while America burns.
There must be a public response, and it must have the appearance of having teeth. It is absolutely critical that this issue have a political response.
Personally, I think gouging will be discovered....jmho.
How about the fairness of 40+ types of fuels bottlenecking our max'd out refinery capacity?
How about the fairness of a major oil company shutting down a refinery for "maintanance" and making more money at the pumps?
Yeah, there's nothing you can do, George W. Nixon.
one thing he can do it relax enviromental rules
Personally, I think gouging will be discovered....jmho.
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It is not difficult (well, for some) to read an oil company balance sheet. They are readily available as public companies -- and those massive profits are not coming from filling propane tanks for your bar-b-que...
Discuss Energy Policy
Samuel Bodman, Secretary of Energy, will discuss the President's Advanced Energy Initiative and investment in advanced energy technologies to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources Tuesday at 4:30pm ET. Submit a question.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ask/question.html
President Bush is a far cry from Nixon. Nixon would have (did) imposed price controls.
Our president is an honorable man, the man I voted for, the man who has installed constitutionalist judges, and the president who is fighting those trying to kill us.
I'm a Bushbot and proud of it.
My question to others is simple: "Whose 'bot' are you?"
My question to others is simple: "Whose 'bot' are you?"
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** RONALD REAGAN ** The last president this country had.
Roger that!
President Bush has proven that he has lost any leadership ability that he had with the pursuit of this bogus search for incidents of price gouging. When he and the U.S. congress both houses knew that the price of all forms of petroleum products were going to skyrocket because of the booming economies in China and India.
If the President wanted to show some leadership ability he would sign a presidential directive initiating Oil drilling on the East and West Coast's as well as in ANWR.He should also order the immediate construction of oil refineries as a national security issue.
Somehow I don't think he will do either of these things and we the working stiffs will be stuck paying Higher prices to heat our homes and fuel our auto's.
Information ping.
Exactly.
Listen to NPR and Public TV. The wacko environmentalists of which you speak are funded by the oil companies, their endowments, and their foundations.
What does that suggest to you?
It suggests to me that the companies are funding those who have made record profits available to them.
What, exactly, is "gas price Cheating"?
He's dead.
(Although that never stopped a dem voter? :>)
Republicans/conservatives/patriots can't vote for him, and if they did, it would be useless.
Time to find out who your shining star is....or constellation. I'm a republican. No one else has as sensible a platform or public principles.
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