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July 22, 2005
Rahall Supports Resolution Asking Bush to Move to Lower Gasoline Prices
By HNN Staff
Washingon, D.C. (HNN)- As families in West Virginia continue to pay record high prices to fill their vehicles with gasoline, U.S. Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-WV, restated his call for action from the White House to assist West Virginians.
"We have suffered through sixteen weeks of record high gas price crisis in West Virginia," said Rahall on July 21, 2005. "And throughout these weeks I have been putting forth ideas to help lower gas prices, but I have been greeted with nothing more than the cold shoulder from the Bush Administration. There are long-term fixes and short-term fixes to this problem, but the president has ignored both and watched as the gas prices break records."
Last week, the average gas price in West Virginia soared to an all new high of $2.33 a gallon and today that prices remain remarkably high. Today's average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.31 and some of the highest gas prices in the state are found in southern West Virginia.
"As we pass summer's halfway mark, we are still greeted on our vacations with record high and near record high prices," said Rahall. "These high gas prices discourage many West Virginians from taking a summer vacation because the cost to travel by car has risen so much over the past year. I urge the White House to take my suggestions and help lower gas prices and jump start the economy. And today, along with my colleagues, I gave my support to a bill that would call on the President to take my suggestions and act to lower gas prices."
Rahall and his colleagues are pushing a House Resolution calling on President Bush to immediately carry out the following measures:
- Demand that OPEC increase supply
- Temporarily suspend deliveries to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and put that oil on the market
- Direct the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General to exercise vigorous oversight over the oil markets to stop price-gouging at the gas pump
- Create greater transparency in gas pricing.
"Each of these suggestions would lower the price of gasoline," said Rahall. "And together, these measures will have a solid effect on lowering gas prices in the short term. To lower gas prices in the long term, these measures must be enacted along with a better energy policy which utilizes coal and other resources, thus helping our nation become energy independent.
Rahall is also a large proponent of becoming energy independent from the Middle East and the OPEC countries. He has been a longtime advocate of the development of additional coal based fuels including liquid and gaseous fuels to help our Nation become energy independent.
