How To Shut Down Gas Price Attacks

ATTACKS AND RESPONSES

      SMEAR: "The Energy Secretary said Obama doesn't want to lower gas prices."
      RESPONSE:

• That's not what the Energy Secretary said. He said our goal is to decrease our dependence on oil, which we should all want. The Politico report that this information is based on has been retracted.
• Drilling isn't the answer. U.S. oil production is the highest it's been in years -- but gas prices are still going up and it would take years before we'd see a drop from new drilling.
• If Republicans really cared about gas prices, they'd help crack down on Wall Street speculation that's driving up prices -- instead of trying to keep us hooked on oil.

      MYTH: "Repealing Big Oil subsidies will raise gas prices."
      RESPONSE:

• Giving tax handouts to oil companies to drill makes as much sense as paying the sun to go down each night, but Republican politicians are protecting them anyway.
• The truth is that taxpayer giveaways to Big Oil have no effect on gas prices -- they just waste billions in taxpayer dollars on oil companies already raking in record profits.
• Instead of protecting Big Oil campaign donors at the expense of taxpayers, let's invest in energy efficiency to ease our reliance on oil and in cleaner, safer sources of energy that won't ever run out.

      ATTACK: "The Keystone pipeline will lower gas prices."
      RESPONSE:

• Keystone will do absolutely nothing for gas prices this summer. Experts agree Keystone is not a long-term solution either for the prices we pay at the gas pump.
• If anything, Keystone will actually raise gas prices in the Midwest, dinging drivers by as much as 20 cents per gallon. That's because the pipeline is designed to transferthe excess of cheap oil from the Midwest to overseas markets. 
• With Keystone, Big Oil gets billions, foreign countries get the oil, and Americans get all the risks -- including higher gas prices.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Obama Administration's new energy efficiency standards for the automakers are expected to lower U.S. oil consumption by more than America now gets from drilling in the Gulf.
• The U.S. is now closest we've been in almost 20 years to achieving energy independence. For the first time in 13 years, America is importing less than half of the oil our nation uses, and domestic oil output is the highest in eight years.
• Last year alone, the five largest Big Oil companies raked in over $130 billion in profits. Over the past five years, Big Oil raked in over half a trillion dollars in profits and laid off more than 10,000 Americans.
• 75% of Americans want to get rid of subsidies for Big Oil, but Republicans keep protecting the taxpayer giveaways -- and Mitt Romney wants to give Big Oil even more handouts.
• A new study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows that Wall Street speculation has been driving up oil prices over the past decade, but the GOP wants to keep letting their Wall Street campaign funders get away with it.

We develop messaging by aggregating, analyzing and distilling polling, tested messaging, and expert recommendations, and monitoring the media to identify what is and isn't working. See here for some of the experts and organizations we draw on.