Senate Ally Defends Obama on Gas Prices

Jeff Bingaman

In recent weeks, President Obama’s foes in Congress and industry have sought to pin the blame for rising gasoline prices — now averaging above $3.50 a gallon — on his administration’s energy policies.

Associated Press Senator Jeff Bingaman

Specifically, his adversaries charge that the administration’s move to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, combined with the slow pace of permitting for deep-sea drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, are responsible for Americans’ pain at the pump.

“At gas stations all across America, millions of our citizens are now feeling the impact of this administration’s policies,” James W. Noe, an oil industry lobbyist, said at a hearing organized by the Republican-led House Energy and Power Subcommittee on Thursday.

“The solution is to immediately resume domestic oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico,” Mr. Noe said.

But even while he was under attack in the House, allies in the Senate rose to the president’s defense. Most notably, Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, used a lengthy floor speech to rebut the claims.

Mr. Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources committee, noted that at a hearing earlier in the week, a panel of energy experts collectively dismissed the charges that either climate policy or the pace of offshore oil permitting were driving gas price higher.

“None of these experts highlighted the administration’s permitting process in the Gulf of Mexico as being a significant factor in world oil markets,” he said.

“Second, any anticipated Environmental Protection Agency regulation of greenhouse gas emissions at refineries was not included in any of the presentations as a driver behind the current increased in prices,” Mr. Bingaman added.

The crucial driver behind the price rise, he said, is the instability of world oil markets in the face 0of uprisings across the Middle East, particularly in Libya, where a popular revolt has effectively curtailed oil exports.

“When political unrest threatens major choke points in the world oil transit routes, world oil prices react, as they have,” he said. “When a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries stops exporting oil, which has virtually occurred in the case of Libya, world oil markets react.”

“When there are fears that a nearby neighbor and close ally of Saudi Arabia, home to the world’s largest spare oil production capacity, might begin a series of political upheavals in the Persian Gulf region, world oil markets react as well,” Mr. Bingaman continued.

He closed by arguing that only reducing the country’s overall dependence on foreign oil would result in long-term relief at the pump.

“First, we need to enable further expansion of our renewable fuel industry, which is currently facing infrastructure and financing constraints,” he said. “Second, we need to move forward the timeline for market penetration of electric vehicles. Finally, we need to make sure we use natural gas vehicles in as many applications as make sense based on that technology.”