Q On the President's offshore oil statement today, it didn't seem like he really wanted to cooperate much with Congress. He's calling them obstructionists, and blaming them for the high price of oil. Where do you come up with the idea earlier that he wanted to work closely with Congress on this?

MR. FRATTO: No, we certainly do want to work closely with Congress. And I think the point is, the only way to get this done, to get the moratorium lifted so that we can begin drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and on the other elements that the President talked about is through Congress. We need congressional action to get this thing done.

Congress -- the Democrats in Congress, either with a Republican majority or under Democratic control, there's no question their position on drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf or ANWR has been relatively clear, just as much as it's been clear for us that we would like to open up those areas. And that's a fact. We'd like them to change their view, especially given where prices of gasoline are going right now.

And so I think that comes -- that's common sense to most Americans that if you have a resource that's in great demand at increasing price, you want to try to bring that resource to market so you can lower the prices and get it to more people.

seen at 09:00, 18 June in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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