About 2 1/2 years ago, Nancy Pelosi and John Dingell sent a letter to the President that read as follows.

April 20, 2005

The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As you know, gasoline prices have risen by an average 38 cents a gallon in the past two months. In fact, 70 percent of the American people have already said that the price at the pump is having an impact on their lives. We understand that the White House is feeling pressure from the American people to act, but misleading the public about the Republican's energy bill is not the answer.

In your weekly radio address last Saturday, you called on Congress to pass the energy bill and implied that the bill would lower costs to consumers. But your Administration's own Department of Energy studied last year's conference report on which this bill is based, and concluded that the Republican proposal would actually raise gas prices by 3 cents per gallon.

The American people deserve an energy policy that would boost the economy, preserve the environment, protect public health, and truly lower gasoline prices. This bill fails on all fronts. The Republican energy bill was written by energy lobbyists for the benefit of the energy industry, while hurting the environment, consumers, and taxpayers.

We encourage you to use your speech to the U.S.-Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to lay out an agenda that seeks to lower gasoline prices, not simply exploit them.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader
John D. Dingel
Ranking Member, Committee on Energy and Commerce

And two years ago, Dingell spoke on the issue again in the Democrat radio address.

We must respond to the needs of the American consumers who are seeing the prospect of $4 a gallon gas and $1,000 monthly heating bills. I promise that Democrats will keep fighting for constructive solutions to AmericaÂ’s energy needs.

Well, around here gas prices are hovering around $2.50 a gallon -- and they are higher most other places in the country.

What is John Dingell's solution? A 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline.

Dealing with global warming will be painful, says one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress. To back up his claim he is proposing a recipe many people won't like — a 50-cent gasoline tax, a carbon tax and scaling back tax breaks for some home owners.

"I'm trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that it's going to have a measure of pain that you're not going to like," Rep. John Dingell, who is marking his 52nd year in Congress, said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

John Dingell has repeatedly spoken out against "price-gouging" by oil companies causing high gas prices, only to have every single investigation of those prices show that they were a legitimate response to market forces. So now what does he do? He proposes that the federal government perpetrate a little price-gouging itself to pay for programs to deal with the junk-science "problem" of man-made global warming. I guess that Mr. Dingell thinks that the government, which already makes more profit off a gallon of gas than the oil companies, just needs that extra 50-cents a gallon more than the American consumer does.

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