'No magic solutions' for oil prices

The White House on Tuesday punched back at Republican critics who have accused President Barack Obama of fueling high gasoline prices, warning there were "no magic solutions" for rising costs. With higher gasoline prices emerging as a threat to the fragile US economic recovery and to Obama's chances

of reelection in November, the White House accused Republican presidential candidates of political opportunism.

"There are no magic solutions to rising oil prices... and the pain that Americans feel at the pump," said White House spokesman Jay Carney, defending Obama's energy record.

"The president is very aware... of the impact that the global price of oil has on families, and this is not something that this administration discovered or rediscovers every spring as some politicians do." Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have tried to pin the blame for higher oil prices on Obama, as they vie to challenge him in the general election in November.

They point to the Democratic incumbent's opposition to offshore drilling, to a pipeline from Canada to the United States and his support for ending oil company tax breaks as part of the reason gasoline prices are high. Americans have seen a 12.5 percent rise in prices at the pump in the last year -- from an average of $3.17 a gallon to $3.57 today. Carney hit back that "American oil production is at its highest now than it has been in eight years," while saying the pipeline delay was thanks to Republican political maneuvering. - AFP