The administration has shown no sign of rethinking its opposition to releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a means of trying to force prices down. "Certainly if it goes on for a while, it's a risk," said Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster. Bush has put at the top of his agenda, overhauling Social Security. The USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll found the price of gasoline rivaling terrorism and health care as the top issues among respondents, well ahead of the priority Mr. In the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 34 percent of respondents said the country was headed in the right direction, down from 42 percent in February. A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll released this week found an even sharper drop, to 41 percent from 48 percent five weeks earlier.Īnalysts said consumer concern about what it costs to fill up at the pump was also pulling down the percentage of people who think the country is on the right track. Bush's handling of the economy to 41 percent from 46 percent two months ago. "They work their way through into public opinion very quickly in terms of affecting people's opinions about the direction of the nation and raising the stakes on pocketbook issues generally."Īn NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey published Thursday showed a drop in approval of Mr. "When gas prices go up to the level they're at now, they are in some ways the economic equivalent of the color-coded terrorism alerts," said Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster. And several recent polls suggest that the spike in oil prices and the resulting rise in gasoline prices have undermined Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, both of whom worked in the oil business, are more interested in helping oil companies than in helping consumers. Bush discussed energy prices with his cabinet on Tuesday and is sure to raise the subject during a meeting being planned for this month with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer.īut Democrats say they intend to use the renewed focus on energy issues to revive their case that Mr. Bush's stalled energy bill, which the administration says would encourage domestic oil exploration and production, support alternative energy sources and improve conservation. It is using the increase in oil and gasoline prices to raise the pressure on Congress to pass Mr. With crude oil prices at record highs in recent weeks and still close to them, the White House is casting itself as immersed in addressing the problem. The Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Energy Department, said it expected the price of unleaded regular gasoline to hit a peak national average of $2.35 a gallon in May and to average $2.28 from April through September. WASHINGTON, April 7 - The government projected on Thursday that gasoline prices would surge even higher in coming weeks and remain high through the summer, a forecast underscoring both the economic effect of the sharp rise in energy costs and growing political risks for President Bush. Report Sees Gasoline Prices Moving Higher Still
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