[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3024-3025]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS PRICES

  (Ms. CHU asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, have you been to the gas station recently and 
been

[[Page 3025]]

shocked? Gas is above $4 a gallon, in many parts of the country, and 
climbing. That's 29 cents more than only a month ago. Families 
everywhere are feeling the pinch.
  But why?
  It doesn't make sense. Supply is up. We've quadrupled U.S. drilling 
rigs over the past 3 years. Oil production is at its highest in a 
decade. Last year, the import of oil fell to its lowest level in 16 
years.
  The answer is Wall Street speculators who buy oil and hoard it. They 
take it off the market and lower supply until the price goes way up. 
Then they sell it and make a killing off the American people. That's 
not fair.
  We can't drill our way out of this problem. We must end Wall Street 
speculation, end subsidies for the oil companies, and end the political 
rhetoric. Let's have real solutions to the problems.

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