The new Democratic speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, said late Tuesday that energy independence in the U.S. will lead to cheaper gasoline prices.

Pelosi spoke to journalists after a weekend in which hardpressed U.S. motorists and industry paid a record national average of $3.07 per gallon at the pumps. In San Francisco, Pelosi’s district, prices reached $3.49.

“With Memorial Day travel and the start of the summer driving season only a few weeks away, drivers are paying a heavy price for the Bush administration's failure to enact a comprehensive energy strategy,” Pelosi said in a statement which was an attack on “Big Oil”.

“In the first 100 hours of the new Congress, the House passed legislation to roll back $14 billion in subsidies for Big Oil, when Big Oil was already enjoying record profits,” Pelosi said, promising more money for clean power and “the Midwest (U.S. farm belt), not the Middle East”.