Obama's Weekly Address: White House Not to Blame for Rising Gas Costs - East Idaho News
News

Obama’s Weekly Address: White House Not to Blame for Rising Gas Costs

  Published at

P 101810 PresdientObamaAddressOvalOffice?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1330132455382Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) — In his weekly address, President Obama continues to defend his energy strategy and claim his administration is not to blame for the spike in gas prices.
 
Echoing a speech he gave in Miami earlier this week, the president warns that politicians criticizing his administration’s energy policy are simply trying to score political points from the pain at the pump.
 
“Some politicians always see this as a political opportunity.  And since it’s an election year, they’re already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas.  I’ll save you the suspense:  Step one is drill, step two is drill and step three is keep drilling.  We hear the same thing every year,” the president says.
 
“The American people aren’t stupid.  You know that’s not a plan — especially since we’re already drilling.  It’s a bumper sticker.  It’s not a strategy to solve our energy challenge.  It’s a strategy to get politicians through an election,” he says in the address.
 
Instead the president argues there “are no quick fixes to this problem” and that an all-of-the-above approach is the “only real solution” to solve the nation’s energy challenges.
 
Hammering home the point that his administration’s actions are not the cause of rising oil costs, the president boasts that “America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years” and notes that dependence on foreign oil was under 50 percent in 2010, the first time in more than a decade.
 
“While there are no short-term silver bullets when it comes to gas prices, I’ve directed my administration to look for every single area where we can make an impact and help consumers in the months ahead, from permitting to delivery bottlenecks to what’s going on in the oil markets,” he says, calling for an end to oil and gas subsidies and for Congress to renew clean energy tax credits.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION