House Republicans say they intend to press oil companies about huge profits at a time when American consumers are paying record prices for petroleum products, even as one major company announced it had boosted its bottom line by more than one-third.
"Big Oil needs to do its part. Increasing capacity and improving refineries will do much to boost supplies so that consumers do not feel such a big pinch," House Speaker Dennis Hastert said in prepared remarks, according to the Washington Times.
In Washington, Hastert and other members of the GOP will hold a press conference today in which they intend to press oil companies on why profits are so high and what they plan to do to bring prices back under control, the Times said.
Hastert said oil companies share a responsibility to the public to do what they can to help keep energy prices affordable and the nation's economy stable and growing.
"These are extraordinary times that call for extraordinary measures," he said. "We expect oil companies to do their part to help ease the pain American families are feeling from high energy prices."
His spokesman, Ron Bonjean, said Republicans also were considering congressional hearings to get answers from oil companies, the Times reported.
One analyst, Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist who lobbies on energy issues, says oil companies should be a little nervous about GOP efforts to get to the bottom of higher energy prices. That could even include legislation, he said.
"The next stop on this train is legislation," he told the Times. "We could go back and forth over whether that legislation is going to be successful, whether it can pass or not, whether it's constitutional. But if you're an oil company, do you want to spend the next six months talking about a windfall profits tax?
"This would be a good moment and a nice opportunity for the oil companies to step forward and do something proactive," he added.
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