News release from US Senator Richard Lugar:
Rising Gas Prices Threaten Economic Recovery, Lugar Says
(Washington D.C. – March 2, 2011) – Citing reports from Indiana that gas prices at the pump have jumped to more than $3.50 a gallon, Senator Dick Lugar called on the Obama Administration to accelerate its efforts to reduce America’s dependence on oil imports.
During a hearing today at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Lugar is the Ranking Republican, he told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that “the State Department and other agencies must be devoted to U.S. energy security.”
“The disruption of oil from Libya has impacted world markets causing the price of oil to spike above $100 a barrel and raising the prices Americans pay at the pump,” Lugar said. “Volatile oil prices are a threat to U.S. economic recovery, and dependence on foreign oil limits our foreign policy choices. We are living in an age of extreme vulnerability to oil supply disruptions from war, instability, terrorism, or embargo.”
Lugar said the U.S. must “end this dangerous over-reliance on oil imports. We must find more domestic resources, improve our efficiency and improve international cooperation.”
“The Obama Administration should reverse its de facto prohibition on new off-shore oil drilling,” Lugar said, “develop new forms of liquid fuels from domestic feed stocks like biomass and coal, and dramatically increase the fuel efficiency of our vehicles. As this occurs, the State Department must work to diversify supply routes, and boost our energy trade with reliable and transparent allies like Canada, in place of shaky and sometimes hostile suppliers.”
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