Energy Secretary Steven Chu expected to come under sharp questioning today by House Republicans on soaring gas prices.
WASHINGTON -- This might be a multiple aspirin day for Energy Secretary Steven Chu. He is testifying this morning before the House Energy and Power Subcommittee.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu is testifying this morning before the House Energy and Power Subcommittee Thursday morning. High gas prices will be a major topic of discussion.The announced topic is President Barack Obama's proposed energy budget for 2013, but Republicans on the panel are asking him about his comments at another hearing when he said the administration's goal isn't so much lower gas prices but to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil.
Republicans on the panel pressed him to explain that statement, which has already led to a demand by GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich that the president fire him. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, a member of the subcommittee, was among the most aggressive in questioning Chu.Scalise said that instead of asking Saudi Arabia to increase gas production, as the Obama administration has, Chu would be better off walking the five blocks from his Energy Department office to "1600 Pennsylvania Ave." to ask the president to "change policies" he says are killing production and causing higher gas prices.
As he spoke, Scalise held up a Google map showing the route from the Energy Department to the White House.
His questions left little time for Chu to respond, but the secretary was allowed to respond after Scalise ended his presentation amid calls from a Democratic member for "regular order" after the Louisiana lawmaker went longer than his allotted five minutes.
Chu said that the administration is asking Saudi Arabia to increase production because is one of the few producing countries with spare capacity and if put into worldwide markets it could have an immediate positive impact on oil prices. Approving new domestic production, he said, wouldn't have much impact on prices because it "typically takes five years" for a new off-shore lease to put into development. He also said that there is more domestic production today than when President Obama took office in Janaury, 2009.
Earlier, Chu said the administration is doing all it can to "lower the price of gasoline," because of the "severe impact on American pocketbooks and American businesses."
During a news conference on Tuesday, President Barack Obama strongly denied that his administration doesn't want lower gas prices, though he said Republican arguments that the U.S. could drill itself to lower prices just isn't true.
"Just from a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into reelection wants gas prices to go up higher?" Obama asked. Is there anybody here who thinks that makes a lot of sense?"
"Look, here's the bottom line with respect to gas prices. I want gas prices lower because they hurt families; because I meet folks every day who have to drive a long way to get to work and them filling up this gas tank gets more and more painful, and it's a tax out of their pocketbooks, out of their paychecks, and a lot of folks are already operating on the margins right now. And it's not good for the overall economy, because when gas prices go up, consumer spending oftentimes pulls back."
Obama said he asked Erick Holder to look into whether speculators are artificially driving up the price of gasoline.