Friday, May 25, 2007
Governor Culver Calls On President And Congress To Act On Skyrocketing Gas Prices
Governor Joined Governors Across the Nation to Urge Action in Washington
(Des Moines) Heading into Memorial Day weekend, Governor Culver has joined Governors from across the nation urging Congress and President Bush to take action on the recent spike in gasoline prices. Specifically, Governor Culver is calling for continued bipartisan inquiries into soaring gas prices and, to avoid future price hikes, urging oil companies to invest their profits in fixing refinery capacity.
In a bi-partisan letter sent to Congressional leadership urging continued bipartisan inquiries into the escalating gas prices, Governor Culver and 21 other Governors across the country wrote, “We are particularly concerned about recent spikes that have seen prices soar in every state across the country. The reasons for these massive increases do not appear to be tied to any recent changes in geo-political events or a weather crisis. … Reliability, capacity and supply issues have been at the forefront of federal energy policy for years. It is difficult to understand how oil companies can be making record profits each quarter without making capital investments in refineries that would address reliability issues.”
In a separate letter from Democratic Governors to President Bush, Governor Culver and 17 other Governors wrote, “We urge you to join us in pressing oil companies to invest their profits in fixing refinery capacity issues that have become annual foil for swiftly escalating prices. Further, we call on you to work with Congress to lower gas prices – support federal legislation defining and penalizing gas price gouging and order your Administration’s agencies to go after any anti-trust or commodities violations.”
In Iowa, gas prices have spiked dramatically in recent weeks. In late April, the average price of gasoline was $2.69 per gallon. Today, the average price has climbed to around $3.30 per gallon. [ http://iowastategasprices.com/retail_price_chart.aspx]
"Working Iowa families are struggling to keep up with these dramatic spikes in gasoline prices,” said Governor Culver. “There doesn’t seem to be a reasonable explanation from the industry why gas prices are soaring well above $3 per gallon going into Memorial Day weekend. Now more than ever it is clear we need to wean ourselves off foreign oil, and there is no better positioned state than Iowa to do just that. E-85 is well below $3 per gallon and I encourage Iowans to explore flex-fuel options as we continue to work to find new and efficient alternative fuels.”