LAT: Oil Executives Expected to Get Flak Over High Prices

[DeepModem Mom]

Oil Executives Expected to Get Flak Over High Prices
By Richard Simon, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — Oil industry executives summoned to Capitol Hill are expected to receive a grilling this week — perhaps unlike any they have received before — over their record profits at a time of high oil prices.

But the questions won't be coming from just from the usual critics. Some of the industry's traditional Republican allies are eager to chide the executives at the televised hearing Wednesday and show their constituents that they, too, share their anger over high prices and record profits.

The hearing, expected to feature an industry defense of its profits, illustrates the political pressure that is driving Republicans to make a show of getting tough on an industry that has been a major source of GOP cash.

In addition to the Senate hearing Wednesday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is preparing to call oil industry executives to a meeting, perhaps later this month, to confront them on what they are doing to boost fuel supplies and bring down prices....

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"Republicans are trying to get in front of this issue because it is clearly an anchor around their ankles at the moment," said Marshall Wittmann, a former Senate Republican aide who is now with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. "There's no doubt that the high gasoline prices are contributing to the low popularity numbers of both the president and the Republican Congress."...


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-110705oilexecs_lat,0,2030465.story?coll=la-tot-promo&track=morenews