Not Letting Up: Republicans Focus on Gas Prices, Pounding the Pocketbook Energy Issue

The first step to solving a problem, of course, is admitting you have one.   Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the Obama administrations economic policies have been remarkably effective and energy prices havent really gone up in recent months.  These comments, while absurd, are consistent with the vice president’s boast earlier this month that our energy policy is the best its ever been.  As for President Obama, who has seen gas prices more than double on his watch, he hasn\’t said much at all about this issue since pushing the Senate to approve tax hikes that would actually make energy more expensive.  That was more than two weeks ago.  

Republicans are taking aim at this wall of indifference and pounding the pocketbook energy issue, POLITICOnotes, with an aggressive push for a real all-of-the-above energy strategy.  Todays Washington Post has more:

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) wants the spring legislative session to focus on several bills to allow more domestic energy exploration, believing that the issue has become an Achilles heel for President Obama. Starting this week, the House GOP will try to push a temporary highway funding bill that includes mandatory approval of construction of the Keystone energy pipeline, setting up a negotiation showdown with the Senate.  In addition, committees are moving bills that would freeze regulations on refineries and also forbid Obama from releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep costs down, a move that Republicans say would only be done for political expediency as the November election draws near.

[GOP pollster David Winstons] most recent poll shows that congressional Republicans hold a seven-point edge, 48 percent to 41 percent, over Obama on how they are handling the energy issue.  More importantly, independent voters side with Republicans, 47 percent to 32 percent, by a wider margin.  

Republicans months-long energy push, according to The Hill, has included a steady stream of speeches, television interviews and press events.  Here are just a few ways to get caught up: 

• Read the bills the Energy & Commerce Committee will consider this week as part of the American Energy Initiative.  These proposals, The Hill reports, are aimed at expanding domestic oil-and-gas leasing and ensuring that federal environmental regulations dont raise prices at the pump.  The panels chairman, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), previewed these measures in the Weekly Republican Address. 

• Take a look at events House Republicans have been holding outside the Beltway and around the country to highlight the need for a real all-of-the-above energy strategy.   Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA), for instance, toured small businesses in his district to get his finger on the pulse on what’s going on.

• Check out this Facebook status update in which Congressman Boehner talks about this weeks American Energy Initiative bills as part of Republicans commitment to removing government barriers to private-sector job creation. Learn more at Speaker.gov/energy.