Members of Congress and the President are trading blame for rising gas prices. President Bush says Congress continues to block offshore oil drilling. In Columbus Wednesday Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel says Mr. Bush forced Congress to block programs that Democrats believe would lead to energy independence.
Rahm Emanuel, the 4th ranking member among House Democratic leaders appeared along side Mary Jo Kilroy the Democratic candidate for Ohio's 15th Congressional District. Kilroy used Ohio State University's Center for Automotive Research as a backdrop to announce energy goals she wants to see enacted if she's elected to represent the state.
"I call on us to accept this challenge: to set a goal of producing an entirely alternative fuel fleet of cars built in America by 2020."
Those cars would run on electricity, hydrogen and ethanol.
Congressman Emanuel calls escalating energy prices a wake-up call.
"We're at a critical juncture - a make or break point on energy and alternative fuels. Are we going to look at new batteries, the hybrids, are we going to look at natural gas, are we going to look at ethanol? I think that if you increase alternatives out there you'll find that a lot of those will give you the type of diversity of demand that will drop prices," Emanuel said.
Kilroy says that during the last 7 years of the Bush Administration the price of a barrel of oil has grown by more than 400%. Sam Hendren, WOSU News