New York (Platts)--7Mar2008

The Bush administration is "quite concerned" about rising energy prices
and acknowledges high prices have negatively affected consumers, the chairman
of the president's Council of Economic Advisors said Friday.

"There's no question that energy prices have gone up and gone up
dramatically over the past year," Edward Lazear said during a briefing at the
White House. "We are quite concerned about that."

The briefing was webcast on the White House's web site.

Lazear also said he expected the inflationary pressures brought on by
high energy and food prices to ease later this year.

Later in the same briefing, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino
declined to answer a question about whether OPEC was correct earlier this week
when it said a weak US dollar was to blame for high oil prices. Perino cited a
long-standing policy that only the president and treasury secretary comment
publicly on the dollar's performance.

--Kevin Saville, kevin_saville@platts.com