WASHINGTON, D.C. – While the President is actively campaigning to convince the American public to ‘stay the course’ in Iraq, the American people are sending the President a message of their own to the President.  A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released today reveals that 71% of the country believes that the President is not doing enough to address the energy crisis.  Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior Democratic Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made the following remarks on inaction of the Republican Congress to address America’s energy concerns:

“A little more than a week after he was first sworn into office, President Bush deputized Vice-President Cheney to create a task force to design a national energy policy.  The Cheney Energy Task Force then met in secret with the energy producers and crafted a policy that effectively lined the pockets of the oil industry.  The Congress then approved a bill which provided huge tax breaks and royalty-free drilling rights to the big oil and gas companies, but did nothing meaningful to reduce the price of gas, decrease consumption or foster innovation through new fuels.

“It’s pretty clear that these days GOP stands for Gas and Oil Party.  The American people are tired of a President and a Congress that represents the interests of the Big Oil industries better than the American people.

“Today’s poll should be a wake-up call for this White House and this Congress – the American public expects more than a President and a Congress of, for and by the Oil industry.”

When President Bush took office the price of oil was $32.19/barrel, today the price of oil is at $68.10/barrel.   In 2003, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the House Appropriations Committee that Iraqi oil revenues would finance the reconstruction of Iraq, three years later the price of oil is twice as high as it was when Operation Iraqi Freedom began and Congress is voting on an Emergency Supplemental funding bill to provide another $72 billion for continued military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For more information on Rep. Markey’s work to make the United States energy independent check out: http://markey.house.gov/