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MALDEN (WBZ-AM) -- Sen. Ed Markey is placing the blame for skyrocketing gas prices squarely on the shoulders of President Donald Trump.
Markey met with reporters outside a Mobil station in his hometown of Malden Monday to make his case, saying the average American has had to pay $350 more per year to fill up at the pump under the Trump administration.
"The policies of the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress are turning drivers across the U.S. upside down and shaking money out of their pockets at the pump," Markey said.
The Senator is blaming what he calls the president's "incoherent" foreign policy for driving up gas prices by 25 percent since taking office last year.
He's filing a bill in Washington that would reinstate the ban on exporting American crude oil.
Congress lifted that ban in 2015, allowing the U.S. to export oil to countries like China--all the while importing oil from the Middle East.
"Mostly OPEC countries--countries that we should not be importing from if we already have the oil here," Markey said. "Exporting 2.5 million gallons of oil a day makes absolutely no sense."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports