Gas prices are always a hot-button political issue, and especially in an election year.

In the latest showdown, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blames a spike in gas prices on President Trump’s “reckless decision” to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Republicans say these claims are insincere. If Democrats are so worried about high gas prices, why do they oppose oil drilling in the U.S. and support increasing gas taxes?

We’ve seen this play out before. When President Obama was in office, Republicans placed the blame for high gas prices squarely on the Democrats — and used cherrypicked statements from then Energy Secretary Steven Chu to help make their case.

In this week’s episode we tackle the hypocritical politics of gas prices. We also discuss the Pope’s upcoming climate summit with leading oil companies.

To kick it all off, we weigh in on a leaked memo with new details on the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants. Is this an abuse of power?

Recommended reading:

• GTM: DOE Plans to Order Guaranteed Profits for Coal, Nuclear Power Plants
• Axios: Pope convenes Big Oil, investors to talk climate change
• The Hill: Senate Democrats look for traction on gas prices
• Rolling Stone: What President Obama Should Have Said About High Gas Prices
• NY Mag: Higher Gas Prices a Headache for GOP — Except in California
• The Verge: Three US states will spend $1.3 billion to build more electric vehicle charging

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Correction: Rebecca Schenker, who submitted news topics for the "Constituent Services" segment of this show, is a transportation planner with the LADOT. This episode incorrectly referred to her as the head of transportation planning at the LADOT. We regret the error.