Neil King looks at whether soaring gas prices will hurt President Obama's chances for reelection in 2012 and how Republicans in Congress are trying to put the blame on Obama for consumers' pain at the pump.
Surging gasoline prices have triggered another energy brawl between the White House and congressional Republicans, this time over oil-company tax breaks, as both sides try to skirt voter blame for the increasing pain at the pump.
Now averaging $3.88 a gallon nationwide, gas prices have jumped 37% so far this year and have more than doubled since President Barack Obama took office. The issue could weigh heavily over the 2012 election.
Mr. Obama urged Congress Tuesday to immediately eliminate what he called "unwarranted" tax breaks for oil companies. In a letter to congressional leaders, the president said the step would yield more than $4 billion a year in revenues that he said should go to developing alternative energies, helping to bring down energy prices over the long term.
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The White House move came a day after House Speaker John Boehner said oil companies are partly to blame for high gas prices and that cutting their subsidies is "certainly something we should be looking at."
Mr. Boehner's office has since backed away from that statement. A Boehner spokesman rejected the Obama proposal, saying it would "simply raise taxes and increase the price at the pump."
The jockeying over oil subsidies comes as both parties are eager to show they are trying to help motorists hit hard by soaring energy prices.
The price surge, which most energy analysts expect to continue into the summer, poses multiple risks for Mr. Obama as he begins to campaign for reelection next year.
His opposition to expanded offshore drilling has prompted Republicans to blame him for stymieing an increase in domestic production. At the same time, high gas prices are threatening to slow consumer spending for other products and dampen the economic recovery, a dire prospect for a president facing re-election.
Nearly all the likely 2012 GOP presidential candidates, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, have seized on rising gas prices to take shots at Mr. Obama's offshore drilling policies.
The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, began emailing around a chart Tuesday showing the spike in gas prices since Mr. Obama took office.
But Republicans, at the same time, are wary of appearing too cozy with the big oil companies, especially at a time when the GOP is pushing to slash government spending.
Seven in 10 respondents to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday said that high pump prices were causing them financial hardship, with more than four in 10 describing the hardship as "serious." Among that latter group, only 39% approve of the way Mr. Obama is doing his job.
Mr. Obama, who in March set the goal of cutting oil imports by a third over the next decade, has mentioned gas prices in nearly a dozen events over the past week, a significant increase from the previous two months. Mirroring a move taken by his predecessor three years ago, Mr. Obama created a Justice Department task force last Thursday to investigate potential price gouging and fraud in the oil markets.
"My poll numbers go up and down depending on the latest crisis, and right now gas prices are weighing heavily on people," Mr. Obama said during a fundraiser last Thursday in Los Angeles.
Still, the White House insisted Tuesday that Mr. Obama's letter on the oil subsidies was not written with an eye to the 2012 election. "That's not how we're looking at it," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, adding that Mr. Obama "saw an opening here expressed by the speaker of the House."
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“ These arguments between big oil and the White House and Congress are getting old. Since 1974 we knew about the dangers of living on oil, and our leaders have done nothing to move our country ahead. Wind farms, solar, hydrogen, blah, blah, blah. Is there someone out there who will lead? ”
—Ralph Fargnoli
The White House is considering a variety of options to give consumers—and the president's approval rating—some relief, including releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But neither Democrats nor Republicans are offering much that's new or anything that would lower gas prices in the short term, a sign of how vexing the problem is.
House Republicans plan to highlight gas prices when they return from recess next week by introducing the first of three bills aimed at expanding domestic oil production. The measure most likely to move first would expedite approval for new offshore drilling permits by requiring the Interior Department to approve or deny them within 30 days, with two possible 15-day extensions.
The following week, the GOP would bring two more bills to the floor that would open parts of the Gulf of Mexico and waters off of Virginia, Alaska and California to offshore drilling. House Republicans will also hold a hearing May 13 on administration policies they say are blocking or delaying renewable energy projects.
None of the Republican measures are likely to clear the Democrat-controlled Senate.
House Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are developing a legislative package to counter the GOP bills. They plan to take advantage of procedural tactics the minority party can use on the floor to force votes on politically-charged issues such as cutting subsidies for oil companies.
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