Statement Regarding Rising Gas Prices, The Subject of a Judiciary Committee Task Force on Antitrust and Competition Policy Hearing
I am greatly concerned about the impact of retail gas prices on the American consumer. Gas prices have skyrocketed and are now a true burden for many hard-working families in my district and all across the country – especially when food and health care costs are soaring too.
In Southern California, prices at the gas pump have hit $4.00 a gallon, and in some places in my district, as much as $4.25. This occurs at the same time that California homeowners are facing some of the highest foreclosure rates in the country.
Oil companies are again reporting record profits. BP announced a first-quarter profit increase of 63 percent; Royal Dutch Shell reported a 25 percent increase in profits – continuing the five-year trend of record oil profits under the Bush Administration.
The price of a barrel of oil reached a record high of $135 a barrel. Amazingly, in 2003, before the invasion of Iraq, the price of a barrel of oil was only $25 a barrel.
I am proud to be a part of the Democratic majority in Congress that is moving America in a New Direction, including taking steps to lower gas prices.
We passed legislation to increase the supply of oil in the market by suspending the filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
We passed legislation to promote clean, renewable alternative energy.
We have passed legislation to crack down on gas price gouging, to oversee market manipulation, to hold OPEC accountable for price fixing and to repeal subsidies to profit-rich Big Oil companies.
I believe these measures will have a positive effect and were much needed after years when congressional Republicans provided lax oversight of Big Oil and allowed President Bush and Vice President Cheney to coddle their friends in the oil industry.
But as my constituents, and all other Americans, continue to feel pain at the pump, I believe we must explore all alternatives and examine any potential solutions to bring energy costs down now – even if these ideas seem drastic. In dire times, bold action is needed.
This week, both the relevant Senate and House committees heard testimony from executives representing the nation's largest oil companies. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Antitrust and Competition Policy, I participated in our second hearing on retail gas prices and competition in the oil industry.
This allowed me to raise questions and express the concerns – and frustration – of my constituents directly with oil executives about their profits and practices, to get their answers on record and hold them accountable, and to impress upon them how urgently we must consider measures to end business as usual.
Noting my longstanding record as a defender of the environment, I indicated my willingness to consider the possibility of granting oil companies the right to drill in currently protected areas – if they could guarantee that doing so would result in lower gas prices for American consumers. None of these highly successful executives were willing to make such a commitment.
Neither were they willing to accept a challenge to demonstrate their patriotism and concern for the American public by lowering their profits even modestly for a limited time to give consumers a break and lower gas prices. How much profit is enough? Could ExxonMobil get by with "only" $25 billion or $30 billion instead of the more than $40 billion in profits for just a single year?
At one point in what seemed to be a futile exchange, I suggested that the hurt being experienced by the American public would become unsustainable and that extreme ideas might be the only way out. At this point, I inadvertently used the term "socialize". I recognize it is a scary term to most, and it is not the word I intended, which was apparent to anyone observing at the time and those who have seen the video clip since. I am not surprised that the media, with its focus on sound bites and "gotchas", focused on this one moment from a five hour hearing.
However, I hope that we can continue in a serious, meaningful and determined way return to the crux of the matter. The American people are being forced to pay more and more for gas while Big Oil gets richer and richer at the public's expense. We – policymakers on both sides of the aisle and both ends of the ideological spectrum; corporate America, and citizens – must work to find viable, effective solutions.
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