Energy Price Stand Off, Possible Path for Keystone in New Transportation Bill, Cong Upton faces Election Challenge

You can't miss the jousting over who is to blame for this years jump in gas prices.  Each side has their ideas of what policies the country should be pursuing.  The Republican's blaming of President Obama prompted a high-profile speech saying there are "no silver bullets" to stop price spikes, and dismissing the GOP's favored drill-more approach as a "bumper sticker" rather than a solution. CQ's Geof Koss reports how Both sides are working the message war with hopes of helping swing the presidential election. Some Democratic lawmakers are already urging Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to tamp down prices, while GOP officials are decrying the "Obama premium" in fuel costs and getting public support for approving the Keystone XL pipeline to deliver more Canadian oil.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) will have a stiff primary race on his hands.   He is challenged by Michigan state legislator  Jack Hoogendyk who earned 43% of the vote in the 2010 primary with support of conservative groups including Club for Growth which is already running ads against Upton for being too liberal.  With  $1,709,245 cash on hand and a record of blasting the Administration's energy agenda, Upton will no doubt give him a good race.

Congress may have gotten closer to putting together a short-term highway bill, now that House leaders agreed to drop key parts of the costly five-year plan they were trying to pass. That could be a vehicle for another Keystone measure. The latest idea, still taking shape, is for the House to prep a less-costly, shorter-term transportation bill that moves closer to the two-year, $109 billion plan moving through the Senate. The full House already passed an energy measure that was one part of its highway bill package that includes language to speed a Keystone decision and to allow energy drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge and offshore areas now considered off limits. While the Senate is expected to block the drilling provisions, bipartisan support for Keystone has already been shown.