House Democrats return fire on rising gas prices

House Democrats fired back at Republicans Wednesday as the blame game over high gas prices intensified.

A day after GOP leaders demanded to see the gas price plan that Democrats alluded to a couple years ago, Democrats charged that Republicans have blocked legislation that would have given consumers
some relief.

{mosads}House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters Wednesday that while there is no known short-term fix that will lower gas prices. Democrats are looking at plans such as market manipulation or a moratorium on purchasing oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices stabilize.

Hoyer said, “Some believe that that may have a 10-, 15-, 20-cent impact on the price of oil, bringing it down as we reduce demand.”

In a letter sent to the White House on Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called on President Bush to work with Congress to get  several key pieces of legislation signed into law.

“I respectfully ask you again to work with the Congress to allow the Justice Department to pursue oil cartel price-fixing, allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the authority to investigate and punish price gougers, end taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil and invest those funds in renewable American energy,” Pelosi wrote. “Lastly, your administration must use the authority given to it by the Congress to end market manipulation.”

Republicans argued that the Democrats’ legislation would not lower gas prices.

“None of the measures offered by the new Democratic majority would lower gas prices …” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Pelosi countered Boehner by releasing a list of House Democrats’ energy-related bills — and how GOP leaders voted on them. In her response letter to Boehner, Pelosi wrote, “[On Tuesday] I wrote to the
president encouraging him to support these initiatives. I hope that you will also join us in our effort.”

Republicans on Wednesday introduced a resolution that called on the Speaker to follow through on her April 24, 2006, statement claiming Democrats had a “commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices.”