Tom Harkin: “I feel constrained also to talk about the problems we have with high gasoline prices in the Midwest. It occurred to me…”

“I feel constrained also to talk about the problems we have with high gasoline prices in the Midwest. It occurred to me there are all kinds of rumors going around about why this is happening: There is a broken pipeline; there is a shortage of crude oil; reformulated gasoline, with ethanol is the problem--there is all this talk swirling around out there, everybody blaming everybody else. No one knows the answers. That is why yesterday I wrote a letter to the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources asking him to hold emergency public hearings to subpoena the heads of the major oil companies, bring them to Washington and put them under oath, and then start asking them the tough questions. Then I believe we might get to the bottom of it. I say to the chairman of the Energy Committee, use the powers of subpoena. Bring the heads of the oil companies to Washington. Maybe they do have an answer.”