- APFeb. 17, 2012: Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington.
As Republicans call for a domestic drilling surge to counter rising gas prices, Sen. Chuck Schumer is leading a charge on the Democratic side to tackle the country's energy woes with pumped-up production overseas.
The New York senator earlier this week wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging her department to convince Saudi Arabia to increase production.
"While Iran
plays games with oil production to punish the international community
for holding them accountable for their rush to develop nuclear weapons,
Saudi Arabia has the capacity to blunt Iran's influence by increasing
its production levels to capacity," Schumer said in a written statement.
Republicans, though, have been quick to assail Schumer's idea.
Both parties have stressed the importance of weaning the U.S. off foreign oil. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the latest call to seek Saudi assistance is "wrong."
"Why doesn't he start urging the president
to start producing it here in America?" McCarthy said. "Not only can we
produce it and lower the price -- we can create jobs, what this country
desires. They are wrong."
McCarthy and other Republicans have pressed the Obama administration to make approval of the entire Canada-to-Texas Keystone pipeline a first order of business, in addition to opening up new areas of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico to drilling.
The administration, though, has staunchly defended its record on seeking energy independence. President Obama
has said there is no "silver bullet" to deal with the short-term
problem of rising gas prices - now at a national average $3.74 a
gallon.
According to the Energy Information
Administration, U.S. dependence on foreign oil has declined since its
peak in 2005. The agency estimates that the U.S. now imports about 49
percent of its petroleum, with about a quarter of that coming from Canada. About 12 percent comes from Saudi Arabia.
The American Petroleum Institute, though,
estimates that the percentage of petroleum imports is actually at about
57 percent as of December, slightly higher than it was a year earlier.
Regardless, Schumer's office defended the senator's call for more Saudi production.
Regardless, Schumer's office defended the senator's call for more Saudi production.
"(Republican critics) are being obtuse,"
Schumer spokesman Brian Fallon said. "Nothing being proposed by the
Republicans would bring relief to consumers at the pump as quickly as
the Saudis stepping up exports to offset the effect created by Iran."
Schumer's letter to Clinton noted that Saudi
Arabia is averaging about 10 million barrels of oil a day, short of its
12.5-million-barrel capacity.
"These lower production levels have a negative impact on global markets," he wrote.
Schumer went on to warn that Iranian threats
and interventions have shaken the markets and could end up harming the
American economic recovery, suggesting immediate action by the Saudis
could offset that impact.
Meanwhile, other Democrats have started to
call on the Obama administration to release oil from the nation's
Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said the country needs to "protect American consumers" from Iran's saber-rattling by releasing the oil.
The Obama administration has not said whether it would consider taking that step, though it did so last summer.
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