WASHINGTON – As Democrats continue to step up their fight against the oil industry, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and others on Thursday criticized major oil companies and their executives for high gasoline prices ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend.
Republicans, on the other hand, blamed President Joe Biden’s energy policy for the high gas prices. The explosiveness of the issue for both parties is clearly shown by a novel survey in seven swing states that show that the economy and cost of living are the most essential issues for voters in the 2024 presidential election campaign.
The Biden administration earlier this week said 1 million gallons of oil will be released from reserves in the northeastern U.S. to lower prices ahead of summer travel. And Biden campaign officials pointed out Thursday that a Wall Street Journal report that prices are already falling before the weekend.
The national average price for a gallon of gasoline was $3.615 on Thursday, according to the automobile group AAAa decline from an all-time high of $5,016 in June 2022.
Democratic lawmakers at Thursday’s press conference outside the U.S. Capitol included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, U.S. Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse of Colorado, and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán and Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove, both of California.
“Instead of advocating for lower gasoline prices for Americans ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend, executives at major oil companies are trying to find ways to drive up prices and boost their profits,” Schumer said. The news conference was co-hosted by Climate Power, a strategic climate communications organization, and the League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group.
early May Federal Trade Commission alleges that Scott Sheffield, CEO of Pioneer Natural Resources, “attempted to conspire with representatives of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and an associated cartel of other oil-producing countries known as OPEC+ to reduce oil and gas production, which would result in Americans paying higher prices at the pump in order to increase his company’s profits.”
During Thursday’s event, Schumer said he would send a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice next week “urging them to investigate and prosecute collusion and price-fixing that may have increased the cost of gasoline, fuel and energy, based on the FTC’s report when they unfortunately admitted [Exxon] Mobil wants to merge with Pioneer [Natural Resources]which I thought was a bad idea.”
Schumer added: “The federal government must use every tool at its disposal to investigate the oil industry and hold those responsible and illegal activities accountable. There is something wrong – very wrong – when big oil companies make money by polluting the atmosphere and at the expense of the American people.”
Trump and the oil companies
The Senate Majority Leader and his Democratic colleagues also called on former President Donald Trump to step down over the recent Media reports He said Trump made a qui pro quo offer to CEOs of major oil companies in April.
Schumer said: “One of the ways that big oil is spending its time right now is trying to curry favor with Donald Trump, who, as we all know, is no enemy of big oil.”
Trump is the likely Republican presidential nominee, which is leading him to seek a rematch with Biden.
Separately, Whitehouse, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, announced on Thursday that their respective committees a joint investigation has been initiated in Trump’s “quid pro quo offer to the major oil companies.”
The senators are asking nine oil and gas companies and their industry associations for information and documents related to the alleged quid pro quo proposed by Trump.
Neguse, a Colorado Democrat, said that for him, “it all comes down to three words: polluters not people.” He noted that “for the last 16, 17 months, we’ve seen an extreme MAGA Republican majority in the House that has taken every opportunity to pass one bill after another to give gifts to oil companies and polluting companies near and far.”
Republicans blame Biden
The conservative group Americans for Prosperity is trying to turn the argument against the Democrats. The group this week announced a series of events across the country where the company will work with local gas stations to bring gasoline prices down to the levels they were when Biden took office.
In March Conference of Republicans in the House of Representatives said: “The rising prices at the pump that Americans are facing are a direct result of Joe Biden’s unprecedented war on American energy, which Biden began on his first day in office to appease his far-left base by implementing his radical Green New Deal agenda.”
The Republicans referred to the US Department of Energy move to suspend permits for novel exports of liquefied natural gas to all countries without a free trade agreement with the United States, as well as the decision at the beginning of Biden’s term, kill the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline.
Meanwhile, polls and analyses also released Thursday by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter in collaboration with the Democratic polling firm BSG and the Republican polling firm GS Strategy Group found that “the defining issue of this election campaign is a more traditional one: the economy.”
More than half of likely voters from swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, viewed inflation and the cost of living as the “worst/weakest” part of the economy, the report found. In seven states overall, Trump led Biden in head-to-head comparisons, 47% to 44%. Trump was ahead in all states except Wisconsin.
Neither a spokesman for the Trump Organization nor his 2024 presidential campaign team immediately responded to a request for comment on Thursday.
