Gore Dodges Responsibility for High Gas Prices

Citizens for a Sound Economy today derided Vice President Al Gore’s attempt to dodge responsibility for rising oil and gas prices.

“High gas prices are central to Gore’s political philosophy, and he has deliberately tried to raise them during his entire career in Washington,” said CSE Director of Environmental Policy Patrick Burns. “Whether it’s casting the deciding vote to raise gas taxes, preventing domestic production of oil, or slapping costly regulations on consumers and producers—the responsibility for the current crisis rests squarely on Gore’s shoulders.”

In 1993, Vice President Gore cast the deciding vote in the Senate to raise the federal gas to 18.4 cents a gallon. He has also helped block domestic production of oil in Alaska and in offshore fields. Over the past eight years, the Clinton-Gore administration has imposed new regulations on domestic producers, mandated the use of costly and complex fuel blends, and said nothing as America’s dependence on foreign oil reached an all time high.

“The truth is that after eight years of heavy-handed regulations and kowtowing to extreme environmental special interests, America’s energy infrastructure is in shambles—and we’re still decades away from a reliable alternative energy source. Clinton-Gore have left us with no option but go hat-in-hand to foreign suppliers like OPEC.

“Using some of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help stabilize oil prices is, at best, only a temporary solution,” continued Burns. “At worst, it’s Gore taking taxpayer money to help defuse a politically lethal issue.”

“Gore often talks about supporting the people vs. the powerful. In this case he’s trying to fool the people until he gets the power,” Burns said.

For more information about gas prices and energy policy, go to: http://www.cse.org/informed/environment.html