April 28, 2006

Encourages Citizens to Sign Petition, Send Message to Bush Administration

LANSING – In her weekly radio address, Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today said the recent rise in gas prices is unacceptable and called on the president to stand up for working people across the nation by calling on oil companies to lower their prices at a time when they are raking in record profits.
 
“Consumers in Michigan and across America are the ones who are subsidizing these profits,” Granholm said.  “I think its time we got a rebate.  That’s why I’ve called on the president to support a cap on exorbitant, windfall profits that oil companies are making during this crisis.”
 
Granholm said the steps President Bush announced his administration is taking to address the gas crisis don’t go far enough to lower prices.  She pointed to Exxon Mobile that reported profits of $8.4 billion for the first three months of this year.  That’s in addition to profits in 2005 of $36 billion, or more than eleven hundred dollars a second. 
 
In addition to demanding action from the White House, the Granholm administration continues to take steps to protect consumers.  These include:

•directing the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) to hire additional gas pump inspectors to make sure motorists aren’t being taken advantage of by bad actors at gas stations, and

•directing the MDA to conduct routine surveys of gasoline prices and to refer any information about potential unfair pricing to prosecutors for possible legal action.

Granholm strongly supports Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Oil Company Accountability Act, which would provide a $500 tax rebate to help middle class families pay for higher fuel costs by repealing tax breaks for the oil companies.  She also supports Congressman Bart Stupak’s Federal Response to Energy Emergencies Act which would provide new tools for the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute price gougers, crack down on market manipulation, and better enforce existing federal and state consumer protections.

With gas prices hitting $3.00 a gallon at stations across Michigan, citizens are being exploited at the pump, not by the service stations, but by the Bush administration which refuses to take action.  Because citizens are literally paying the price at the pump for this inaction, Granholm is encouraging people to make their voices heard in Washington and sign an online petition to tell President Bush to support a cap on windfall profits for oil companies. 

“Let’s rev up the engine of public opinion and send a strong message to the leadership in Washington that we want action, and we want it now,” Granholm said.  “Already, more than 150,000 citizens have lent their name to that petition.  I encourage you to do the same.”

The petition is available at www.michigan.gov/lowergasprices

The Governor’s weekly radio address is released each Friday at 10:00 a.m. and may be heard on broadcast stations across the state through an affiliation with the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.  The address will also be available on the Governor’s website on Mondays as a podcast for general distribution to personal MP3 players and home computers.

Broadcasters Note: Governor Granholm’s radio address can be accessed through Sunday evening exclusively through the Members Only page of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters website.

Publishers Note: The text of today’s address is attached.