GOP ramps up call for domestic oil

WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- The United States needs more domestic oil and gas production, senior Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said Saturday in the party's weekly address.

With soaring gas prices galling consumers, Hutchison alleged Democratic President Barack Obama was moving in the wrong direction.

"Unfortunately, rather than work to increase domestic energy production and help bring down gas prices, the Obama administration is seeking to impose more regulations and taxes on oil and gas companies," Hutchison said.

Last week, Obama's environmental stance weakened when he announced some exploratory drilling in Alaska, far from the U.S. mainland, would advance.

Hutchison has a Senate bill pending that would extend oil leases for exploration in the Gulf of Mexico that conflicts with Obama's moratorium on deep-water drilling since the BP disaster that began in April 2010.

She claimed Obama was talking without backing the issue with action.

"It is not enough for the president to talk about producing energy in America," Hutchison said. "We call on him to put policies in place that cut the bureaucratic red tape and put Americans to work doing it."