Bart Stupak: “Gasoline inventories actually have a surplus. March 7, 2008, we had a surplus of 22 million barrels of gas more than the…”

“Gasoline inventories actually have a surplus. March 7, 2008, we had a surplus of 22 million barrels of gas more than the previous year. Gas supplies are up. Oil gas demand is actually down. And what do we have? We have a 51 percent increase in that same period of time. Gas went from $3.10 to $3.61 since April 1. Look, we've had mergers. We've had refineries not being built. We have more exploratory. We have more supply. Supply is up, demand is down, the prices have gone sky-high. Why is that? Look at the profits. ExxonMobil, first quarter of 2008, $10.9 billion; Royal Dutch Shell, $9.1 billion; BP, $7.6 billion, up 63 percent from last year; Chevron, $5.2 billion; Conoco Phillips, $4.1 billion. That is almost $40 billion in their first quarter. That's why gas prices are so high. That's why this Congress must act to lower gas prices.”