Jeff Bingaman: “I want to reiterate that it is extremely important that the administration assert pressure on OPEC, the OPEC members who…”

“I want to reiterate that it is extremely important that the administration assert pressure on OPEC, the OPEC members who are meeting in Vienna, to forego their proposed 1 million barrel-per-day production cut. We do need to rein in high oil and gas prices and we need to send a strong message that cutting production of oil in OPEC is not the way to do that. OPEC has the ability to affect price in two important ways: They can add to supply or they can talk down the price of oil on the world market. We have seen them do both in previous periods. I don't see any real action to affect the price of oil on either front at this point. We have been out of the price band--this is, I believe, this $22 to $28 band that OPEC has talked about--for quite some time now. At the same time that we have been way above that band, some OPEC members are talking about not only keeping production steady but actually cutting production. This would be a very wrong-headed move. It would have adverse consequences on American consumers.”