Nancy Pelosi Issues Statement On Soaring Gas Prices

www.zerohedge.com

Pelosi's statement needs a sentence by sentence refutation, so here goes:

• Independent reports confirm that speculators are driving up the cost of oil, hurting consumers and potentially damaging the economic recovery. Wall Street profiteering, not oil shortages, is the cause of the price spike. In fact, U.S. oil production is at its highest level since 2003, and millions of acres have been cleared for additional development.  [ comment:  Millions of acres- where?  What about the Keystone pipeline?  Isn't it true that the left is hostile towards oil?  Does Pelosi actually expect anyone to believe that they are suddenly gung ho about producing more energy from oil?]
• We need to take strong action to protect consumers from this speculation. Unfortunately, Republicans have chosen to protect the interests of Wall Street speculators and oil companies instead of the interests of working Americans by obstructing the agencies with the responsibility of enforcing consumer protection laws. They have also repeatedly opposed our efforts to end billions of dollars in outdated taxpayer subsidies for oil companies enjoying record profits. [ comment:  Secretary of Energy, Chu has said Americans should pay as much for gas as the Europeans.  We don't need the hostile left harassing energy companies in the name of protecting us from those energy companies that are providing us with energy.  What we need is downsizing of the government's regulatory burdens and basically to get out of the way of the market working.  We have seen this all before in the seventies- the solution now is the same as then.  When the government got out of the way in the seventies, prices stabilized, and in some cases, even went down.]
• We support efforts by the Obama Administration to expand domestic energy resources, including natural gas and renewable sources like wind and solar that create jobs in America and will end our dangerous dependence on foreign energy supplies. This can be achieved because today, the United States currently has more oil and gas rigs at work than the rest of the world combined, and imports of foreign oil have decreased. [ comment:  Wind and solar produce only pitifully small amounts of energy, and produces no liquid fuel whatever to run an automobile.  The administration has does nothing but waste money on boondoggles like Solyndra, that add nothing to our energy supplies, but adds tremendously to debt.  Unemployment is stubbornly high, and there are fewer people working now than when Obama took office.  Those in Obama's party are trying to stop fracking, which is why natural gas is more plentiful.  The increase in energy supplies has been accomplished not  because of Obama's policies, but in spite of them.]
• We call on the Republican leadership to act on behalf of American consumers and join our efforts to crack down on speculators who care more about their profits than the price at the pump even if these spikes harm the American consumer and our economy.[ comment:  Speculation is nothing more than private enterprise working freely in the markets to bring energy to us all.  If those like Pelosi would just get out the way, we could have more energy at better prices.  If it was up to Pelosi, private enterprise would be more and more hobbled and prices would go up to where it is in Europe, as Secretary Chu indicated.  The truth is that the administration wants higher prices and has said so.  Blaming it on private enterprise is wrong.  More government will only make the situation worse.]