Oil tops $100; Reid blames Bush
By Matthew Hay Brown
As oil futures topped $100 a barrel today, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said congressional Democrats would try again to end government breaks for the industry – an approach that has been rejected by President Bush.
“It is unfortunate that President Bush opposed our legislation to repeal multi-billion dollar subsidies given to Big Oil companies,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We will again seek to repeal these subsidies and to enact strong legislation to stop price gouging at the pump and pursue anti-trust actions against OPEC entities that fix the price of oil.”
The White House, meanwhile, spoke of expanding domestic production, including drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“We have to figure out a way to increase supply here in the United States, done in environmentally sensitive ways, which we know how to do, so that we can have an increase supply of oil here while world demand continues to increase at a really astronomical pace for demand for oil,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters.
Violence in the Nigerian oil center of Port Harcourt and rough weather that threatened oil-exporting ports in Mexico helped push the price of light, sweet crude for February delivery over the century mark, the Associated Press reports. Adjusted for inflation, the cost remains within range of highs set in 1980.
Prices at the pump, which tend to lag behind futures, rose slightly today, according to the Oil Price Information Service. The national average cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline climbed 0.6 cents today to $3.049. That was down from $3.061 a month ago, but up from $2.322 a year ago.
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