Haley Barbour: Obama Is Deliberately Trying To Drive Up Energy Prices

WASHINGTON — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) is accusing the Obama administration of deliberately driving up energy costs, comparing the destructiveness of high gas prices to the financial troubles of Wall Street.

“This administration’s policies have been designed to drive up the cost of energy in the name of reducing pollution, in the name of making very expensive alternative fuels more economically competitive,” said Barbour in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC on Tuesday morning.

Barbour cited 2008 comments by Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who floated the idea of gradually raising gasoline taxes to convince more Americans to adopt energy-friendly habits. “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” he said at the time. President Obama has dismissed the idea of raising the gasoline tax.