"Today, President Bush is giving another gift to the oil companies that will do not one thing to lower gas prices for the American people.

"This proposal is something you’d expect from an oil company CEO, not the President of the United States.

"The President is taking special-interest government to a new level and threatening our thriving coastal economy, worth $70 billion and almost two million jobs. 

"The President didn’t follow his father’s policy on Iraq and now he’s not following his father’s policy on offshore oil drilling.  Ironically, the result will be less pressure on the oil companies to produce on the leases they already hold.

"At a time when the Bush Administration is failing on housing, the economy, the deficit, the environment, and foreign policy, the President is desperately trying to divert responsibility for outrageous gas prices from himself to the Congress.  Congress must stand firm and push for real solutions to high gas prices. 

"These solutions include going after speculators, drilling on the leases the oil companies already hold, utilizing the investigatory powers of the FTC and the Commodities Future Trading Commission, and releasing some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve."

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