Abdullah, can you spare some gas?

Abdullah, can you spare some gas?
Posted May 13, 2008 8:30 AM
The Swamp

by Matthew Hay Brown


As President Bush prepares for his trip this week to the Middle East, the Democratic Senate leadership is asking him to prevail on the government of Saudi Arabia to help Americans with the rising price of gasoline.

"Before your first inauguration, you told the American people that you would be able to use your relationships in the oil industry to be more effective at convincing OPEC to increase its production of oil," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the rest of the leadership wrote in a letter Monday to Bush. "Unfortunately, despite recent entreaties by you and Vice President Cheney, OPEC has voted three times in the last year against raising production, meaning rising gas prices continue to sap a greater portion of Americans' paychecks.

"The American people need your leadership on this issue now more than ever. We hope that you will put this concern at the top of your agenda during your meetings in Saudi Arabia, and that you convince the Saudis to release some of their spare capacity to cool the markets and give some relief to America's drivers."

President Bush is due to meet Saudi King Abdullah on Friday. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said Monday that Bush would "ask the Saudis to consider the drain on the world economy because of high gas prices."

"He raises it every time that he can," Perino said. "But I think that we also need to remember that we have problems that we can try to solve here at home, and one of those is to find a way to help make ourselves more self-reliant on oil that we have right here" - an apparent reference to untapped reserves in the United States, such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that Democrats have opposed drilling.

The Democrats' letter follows.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/05/abdullah_can_you_spare_some_ga.html