© 2010 WMG www.theblackkeys.com This is the official video for Tighten Up by The Black Keys. http Directed by Chris Marrs Piliero

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If you have to fill your gas tank this weekend – whether or not it takes a second mortgage to pay the tab – you’re a soldier in the hottest political fight over energy and the economy. Or maybe you feel more like “collateral damage” as President Obama, lawmakers, and “Big Oil” battle over who’s at fault for $4-per-gallon gasoline. In his radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama repeated his call to end “unwarranted taxpayer subsidies we’ve been handing out to oil and gas companies – to the tune of $4 billion a year.” “When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right,” Obama said Saturday. “They aren’t smart. And we need to end them.” RELATED: Gas prices: 10 ways you can save at the pump Them’s fightin’ words to his political opponents, particularly those from oil-producing states. “The president may think he’s punishing CEOs of big companies, but his plan will hurt the everyday consumer of energy and imperil the jobs of millions of hardworking people in American-based companies,” first-term Congressman James Lankford from Oklahoma said in the Republicans’ weekly address. The average national price for regular gasoline right now is $3.91 a gallon. In 22 states it’s higher than that, and the price has jumped past $4 in Alaska, California, and Connecticut. Obama says oil companies are at least partly to blame, and his main ammo are their newly-announced profit statements. ExxonMobil reports first-quarter profits of $10.7 billion – 69 percent above the company’s first quarter of 2010. Royal Dutch Shell marked $6.9 billion in profits, an increase of 40 percent over last year’s first-quarter number. Chevron Corp. saw its first-quarter net income go up 36 percent to $6.2 billion. BP made $5.5 billion. Industry spokesmen say such figures should be put into broader perspective. “We should be proud of the success of an industry that supports 9.2 million American workers and 7.5 percent of our economy while also supplying income to millions of the nation’s retirees,” American Petroleum Institute CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement Thursday. “Oil and natural gas companies are a vital part of our nation’s industrial and manufacturing base. They provide most of America’s energy and are responsible for one in every five dollars invested in renewable energy.” Record industry earnings “reflect the size necessary for companies to be globally competitive with national oil companies, along with a steady rise in crude oil prices driven by rapidly growing world oil demand and instability in the Middle East,” Gerard said. Obama’s political problem regarding high prices at the pump – and the reason for his current finger-pointing tactic – are obvious. Polls show people are more inclined to blame him and the Democrats than they do Republicans for high gasoline prices. At the same time, according to a recent McClatchy-Marist Poll, three times as many respondents say US oil companies are the culprits behind record prices at the pump. This was the second Saturday in the row that Obama has hit on gas prices and oil industry subsidies in his weekly address. He may have some openings on the GOP side. In a TV interview Monday, House Speaker John Boehner said oil companies should “pay their fair share in taxes.” “I don’t think the big oil companies need to have the oil depletion allowances,” he also told ABC News. A Boehner spokesman quickly walked back those assertions, but the White House and congressional were quick to jump on them. At a town hall meeting a few days later House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin said federal oil subsidies should be eliminated as part of deficit-reduction. “We’re talking about reforming the safety net, the welfare system; we also want to get rid of corporate welfare,” Ryan said. “And corporate welfare goes to agribusiness companies, energy companies, financial services companies, so we propose to repeal all that.” The Senate could take up the issue as soon as this coming week. Expect more sparks to fly. RELATED: Gas prices: 10 ways you can save at the pump Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Continue reading " Gasoline prices are up to $4 a gallon. Is that ‘Big Oil’s’ fault? (The Christian Science Monitor) "

NEW YORK – Soaring gas prices are starting to take a toll on American drivers. Across the country, people are pumping less into the tank, reversing what had been a steady increase in demand for fuel. For five weeks in a row, they have bought less gas than they did a year ago. Drivers bought about 2.4 million fewer gallons for the week of April 1, a 3.6 percent drop from last year, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks the volume of gas sold at 140,000 service stations nationwide. The last time Americans cut back so much was in December, when snowstorms forced people to stay home. Before the decline, demand was increasing for two months. Some analysts had expected the trend to continue because the economic recovery was picking up, adding 216,000 jobs in March. “More people are going to work,” said John Gamel, director of gasoline research for MasterCard. “That means more people are driving and they should be buying more gas.” Instead, about 70 percent of the nation’s major gas-station chains say sales have fallen, according to a March survey by the Oil Price Information Service. More than half reported a drop of 3 percent or more — the sharpest since the summer of 2008, when gas soared past $4 a gallon. Now it’s creeping toward $4 again. People are still taking a hit, even as they conserve gas. That’s because gas prices are going up faster than people are cutting back. Gas is 32 percent more expensive than it was in April 2010. In all, Americans are paying roughly $340 million more per day to fill up than they did a year ago. Gas prices have shot up as unrest in North Africa and the Middle East rattled energy markets and increased global demand for crude oil squeezed supplies. A gallon of unleaded regular costs $3.77 on average, and only Wyoming has an average lower than $3.50. Gas is already 41 cents more expensive than at this point in 2008, when it peaked at $4.11 in July. Most analysts are sticking to forecasts of a high of $4 a gallon, though some have predicted $5. Across the country, some drivers are already hunting for cheaper gas, sometimes with the help of a mobile phone app. Others are checking out bus and train schedules, reconsidering mass transportation, or trading in their SUVs for more fuel-efficient models. Kim Cramer, who works for Radio Flyer in Chicago, has started walking and carpooling more. She’s also learned to be choosy, buying gas in suburbs, where she’s learned she can save as much as 20 cents a gallon. “I try to fill up anywhere besides the city,” she said. About two and a half days’ worth of Whitney Shaw’s pay each month goes just to fill up her 2001 Hyundai Accent. The administrative assistant is thinking about taking the bus for her daily commute, 50 miles each way between Branford, Conn., and Hartford. “It’s three hours of pay from work just to fill up my tank even once, so I’m definitely feeling it,” Shaw said while filling up for $3.61 a gallon at a Valero station on the Berlin Turnpike. Americans also appear to be turning to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. Sales of the Hyundai Sonata and Elantra soared 55 percent in March. Meanwhile, sales of Chevy’s Suburban SUV dropped nearly 24 percent. The decline is somewhat puzzling because Americans typically curb their driving only as a last resort, after sacrificing other forms of discretionary spending, like shopping for new clothes, or going to movies, concerts and restaurants. But demand for gas is falling while other types of spending are on the rise. Retail sales rose 2 percent in March compared with a year earlier, surprising economists who were expecting no increase or even a decline. Gamel said it’s too early to tell whether this is the kind of long-term decline in demand that the economy endured during the recession. Prices already are in the range when Americans started to leave their cars in the driveway several years ago. Drivers began to cut back on gas in October 2007, when the national average approached $3 per gallon. Even if demand for gas keeps falling in the U.S., it probably won’t be enough to force the price down. That’s because worldwide demand for crude oil keeps rising. Global demand for oil is about 87 million barrels per day, matching its peak from 2007. It is expected to grow to more than 88 million barrels a day by year’s end, with most of the increase coming from China. At the same time, supply is shrinking because of uprisings in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East. In the United States, people are watching their local gas stations a little more carefully. Some are even getting rid of their old gas-guzzler. Andrea Meyer of Manteno, Ill., has done both. She buys gas in the middle of the week because prices seem to jump over the weekend. And she recently sold her 2005 Chevy Envoy SUV and bought a 2011 Chevy Cruze, which gets 30 miles per gallon. She still spent about $200 on gas for the new car from mid-February to mid-March. “I won’t go hungry tomorrow,” she says. “It’s just taking away from me getting ahead faster. It throws off everything. It immediately makes you reprioritize.” ___ Associated Press Writers Barbara Rodriguez in Chicago, Ben Dobbin in Rochester, N.Y., and Stephanie Reitz in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this story. Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

Continue reading " Drivers start to cut back on gas as prices rise (AP) "