GOP lawmaker: Dems' plan to cut gas prices nonexistent

GOP lawmaker: Dems' plan to cut gas prices nonexistent

A Republican congressman from Texas says he's still waiting to see the plan Democrats promised months ago to lower gas prices.

Oil prices recently reached a record high of nearly $100 a barrel, and gas prices are also soaring near all-time highs. This despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's claim in late April that "Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices."

Representative Sam Johnson (R-Texas), whose state has seen gas prices reach a record high for November, says he has not seen the plan Pelosi was talking about. "No, I don't think they do have one," says the congressman.

According to Johnson, Pelosi and other Democrats have consistently fought against further coal, oil, and gas exploration in the U.S., and even wind energy.

"You know, the problem we've got in this nation [is] we have energy in our own country [that is not being tapped]," he says. "We have more coal than anybody else in the world; we've got oil deposits that haven't been drilled; we've got gas deposits that haven't been accessed -- and even wind energy people are fighting against [us]. So I think we have to come together as a nation and use the resources that we have in our own country."

Congressman Johnson says use of those natural resources would make the country about 80% self-sufficient -- a level he believes is attainable, but a condition that he notes many people oppose.

"I just don't understand the people who oppose us becoming energy sufficient here in this country -- [and] we could be," the Texas lawmaker shares. "[But] you know, it just seems like we run into a stone wall every time we turn around trying to improve our energy position. That's how you get the prices down. I don't know of another way to do it."

The same month Pelosi said Democrats had a plan that would lower gas prices, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) warned, "We are one accident or one terrorist attack from oil at $100 a barrel!"