Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL2) had some strong words for the President Barack Obama over the holiday weekend, blaming the president’s administration for gas prices spiking to the “second highest level ever for this time of year.”
Here’s an excerpt from an email blast Roby sent out Sunday evening:
Summer in the South is heating up, and that means barbecues, baseball games, and beating the heat at a nearby swimming pool.
Unfortunately, it also means American families are feeling the pinch of high energy costs. Planning to take the kids on that drive to the beach? Rising prices at the pump will make it expensive, as gasoline is at the second highest level ever for this time of year: more than $3.60 a gallon. Fuel costs are also driving up grocery prices, and we all know what those summer electric bills can look like.
The Obama Administration’s “just say no” mentality on developing domestic sources of energy isn’t helping. The President and his policies are clamping down on new exploration projects, penalizing electricity producers, and refusing to approve needed energy infrastructure like the Keystone Pipeline. That kind of stubbornness might please radical environmentalists, but it hurts American families.
We have abundant energy resources in this country. Now we need to enact policies and build infrastructure that allow those resources to be delivered efficiently.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States was $1.838 the week President Obama took office. The average price is now $3.704, an increase of over 100 percent. And that’s not even the highest prices Americans have seen at the pump. That record was reached the week of May 9, 2011 when the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded reached $3.965.
The record-high costs of gas and other products that American families directly consume likely contributed to the results of a recent Quinnipiac survey in which Americans ranked President Obama the worst U.S. President since World War II.
Roby pointed to three energy-related bills passed by the Republican-controlled House last week as evidence that GOP lawmakers are working to provide relief to families struggling with rising prices.
“It’s time for the Senate and the President to say ‘Yes’ to energy to bring down costs for families and create American jobs,” Roby concluded.
A funding bill for energy and water development and related agencies is expected to reach the House floor this week.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.