Obama, Republicans trade barbs about soaring U.S. gas prices

Washington, Mar 4(ANI): U.S. President Barack Obama and the Republicans have traded barbs about rising gas prices, with each side blaming the other for the trouble.

Obama defended his administration's energy policies and stressed that drivers need to realize there is no short-term "silver bullet" to combat soaring fuel costs.

"There's no shortcut to taking control of our energy future. We can't just drill our way out of this problem - while we consume 20% of the world's oil, we only have 2% of the world's oil reserves. We've got to develop new technology that will help us use new forms of energy," The New York Daily News quoted Obama, as saying.

Obama boasted that not only have the auto giants added 200,000 new jobs but that they are developing more green vehicles.

"Thanks to new fuel efficiency standards we put in place, they're building cars that will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade," Obama said.

"That's almost double what they get today. That means folks will be able to fill up every two weeks instead of every week, saving the typical family more than 8,000 dollars at the pump over time," he added.

But Republicans attacked Obama for not taking adequate steps to drive down gas prices.

"The President, who campaigned on a promise to address rising gas prices, now talks as if they're largely beyond his control," a Republican representative Richard Hastings said.

Hastings, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, repeated his party's attack on Obama for not immediately approving the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would have stretched from Canada's oil fields to Texas. (ANI)