Shell exec: Oil prices could continue to rise

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Source: NBC TODAYShow

Unless Congress allows expanded drilling on the outer continental shelf of the United States, fuel prices are going to continue to increase, the head of the Shell Oil Company told TODAY.

“If we don’t bring more oil and gas into the system we’re going to have to pay more and more and more,” Shell President John Hofmeister told TODAY host Meredith Vieira. “I’d hate to see prices double and triple what they are today because we failed to explore for more gas and oil.”

Hofmeister, who last visited TODAY a year ago, is in the midst of a 50-city “listening tour” he began a year ago to address the public’s anger with the high price of energy and the huge profits being reaped by oil companies. Public opinion polls have ranked oil companies last out of 21 industries with an approval rating of 10 to 15 percent.
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“We’ve been to 33 cities since I was here a year ago,” he told Vieira. “We’ve talked to thousands and thousands of people from coast to coast. What they’re saying is, ‘We are angry, we are frustrated, and we’re in fear we’re running out of oil and gas.’”

The good news, he said, is “there’s plenty of oil and gas out there.” But, he added, the oil companies aren’t allowed to go after it.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18655550/