Washington, DC -- Today the Energy Information Agency released its report detailing the increased price of gasoline around the country and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, released the following statement criticizing the Bush Administration for pursuing a national energy strategy that had resulting in sharply increased prices for American consumers.  In New England alone, gas prices have gone up to almost three dollars a gallon, up 70 cents from this time last year.
“This new report only underscores what every American consumer is seeing every time they pull up to the gas pump – the depressing reality that the Bush Administration’s energy policies have proven to be a miserable failure,” said Rep. Markey, the lead sponsor of legislation to increase fuel economy standards for cars and SUVs.

Rep. Markey explained, “Over the last five years, the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress have put in place virtually all of the recommendations that Vice President’s Cheney’s Energy Task Force crafted in secret with the heads of the nation’s largest oil, gas, utilities, and other energy companies. Their wrong-headed policies have led to windfall profits for big oil and pain for American consumers at the pump.”

According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest oil and gas market analysis, “This Week in Petroleum” and other historical EIA data, over the last week, oil prices have risen to $73.94 a barrel,  a $14.83 increase over the price charged at the same time last year, a $10.92 increase over the price charged for a barrel of oil when the Republican Energy bill was enacted into law (August 8, 2005) and a whopping $50.35 increase over the $23.59 per barrel price being charged for oil when President Bush took office.  Nationally, prices at the pump have also risen substantially, with the cost of a gallon of regular gasoline currently averaging $2.93, which represents a $0.71 increase over prices at the same time last year, a $0.56 increase over prices charged at the time the Energy bill became law last August, and a $1.66 increase over the $126.8 charged for a gallon of regular gasoline when Bush took office.

EIA also reports that gasoline imports are up substantially, noting that “total U.S. gasoline imports (TOT) averaged over 1.2 million barrels per day in April 2006, significantly more than the nearly 800,000 barrels per day averaged 5 years earlier and more than double the nearly 600,000 barrels per day averaged 10 years ago.”

Rep. Markey concluded, “The high price of energy is the totally predictable result of this Administration’s unwise reliance on new domestic supply – which either doesn’t exist or is very expensive to produce – and neglect of energy efficiency – where opportunities are abundant, proven, and economical.  And the starkest example is that that neither President Bush nor the Republican-controlled Congress has been willing to consider as part of its national energy strategy a significant increase in the fuel economy standards for cars and SUVs.  If we had put tougher fuel economy standards in place back at the beginning of the Bush Administration, consumers probably wouldn’t be paying as much at the pump as they are today.”

For further information, visit http://markey.house.gov.