Chicago Tribune: Hastert takes oil industry to task over large profits

[LookManLook]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0511060222nov06,1,3540942.story?coll=chi-news-hed

WASHINGTON -- With Americans likely facing a winter of record heating bills, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he will summon the leaders of the nation's largest oil and gas companies this week to demand they reinvest their profits in ventures that will produce more fuel and lower prices for consumers.

"I intend to bring the CEOs here and sit down and talk to them," Hastert (R-Ill.) said in an interview Friday. "I want to look them eyeball to eyeball."

Hastert also said he has twice urged President Bush to take advantage of his bully pulpit and push the industry to use a portion of its multibillion-dollar profits to help consumers.

"The president could do a lot just by jawboning people," Hastert said. "If anybody could talk to them, the president of the United States could. That's his world."

There's a reason they call it populism.