Jeff Bingaman: “I came to the floor nearly a week ago to talk about high energy prices. I know several of my colleagues have been…”

“I came to the floor nearly a week ago to talk about high energy prices. I know several of my colleagues have been speaking about this issue today. At the time I spoke last week, I outlined a series of suggestions, 13 concrete actions I was urging the administration and particularly the President take to begin addressing this problem, both of high price of gas but also the high price of natural gas and the impact that is having on American families and on our economy. The figures are fairly startling. Today, energy prices are at historic highs. Some analysts estimate that energy price shocks this year could cost American consumers more than $40 billion. Speaking very frankly, we cannot afford this kind of expense. We need to maintain a healthy pace of growth in our gross domestic product, and high energy prices dampen that growth. Clearly we need to give attention to this.”