Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the record high gas prices are the fault of the Bush administration. Boswell says, "With Memorial Day travel and the start of the summer driving season only a few weeks away, drivers in Iowa and the rest of the country are paying a heavy price for the administration’s failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy."
Boswell says in the coming weeks, House committees will be developing ways to reduce our dependency on foreign oil with alternative fuels and greater efficiency." Officials with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources say an oil refinery fire, heavy price speculation, and other factors led to gas pipelines in the state running dry and prices going up. Boswell was asked if it was the other factors or administration policy that caused the higher prices.
Boswell says it’s a combination of factors as we’re in the season when usage goes up. Boswell says manufacturers haven’t done anything for several years with the refining process that makes oil into gasoline, while he says the oil companies are making "astronomical profits out of all this." Boswell says it shows the need to continue working to improve the use of ethanol and alternative fuels.