Jeff Bingaman: “I think we need to dispel that notion if that was the impression that some people had. The truth is, there are three big…”

“I think we need to dispel that notion if that was the impression that some people had. The truth is, there are three big issues I heard referred to. One is clearly production of oil is not what it needs to be relative to demand today to bring prices down, and the world market is indicating that. We received the very unfortunate news this morning that OPEC had decided to go ahead with the cut in production they had earlier talked about. That is unfortunate. Some of the media has speculated that would result in $40 per barrel of oil in the reasonably near future. If that is the case, then we will see very high prices for gasoline in this summer driving season. In a letter I sent to the President last week on March 24, I had urged the administration to do all it could to dissuade the OPEC nations from going ahead with that proposed cut in production.”