Ron Wyden: “the same Bush administration that so tragically bungled the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has now bungled its…”

“the same Bush administration that so tragically bungled the response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has now bungled its way to $3 per gallon gasoline. Unless you were a hermit living in a cave last summer, you couldn't have missed how miserably the administration has failed in its approach to natural disasters. Now it is clear to anyone who fills up at a gas pump that this administration is also failing in its approach to energy. In both cases the administration had advanced notice that a major problem was imminent and in both cases the administration failed to take action to head off the problem before it became a major crisis for the American people. For Hurricane Katrina, disaster experts had testing that predicted in the spring what could happen, but the administration ignored the warnings of its own experts as major hurricanes were heading toward the gulf coast. If anything, the administration's failure to take action to prevent gas shortages and price spikes is even more indefensible because they had more advanced warning and greater certainty that the problem was coming. The Bush administration knew last summer--almost 9 months ago--that gasoline shortages and price spikes would hit hard this spring. If ever there was a time to be watchful about oil markets, it has been during the past months as markets have gyrated virtually nonstop with one international crisis after another.…”