In a letter to President-elect Obama and Energy Department designee Steven Chu, Consumer Watchdog urged the new administration to add regulation of the oil and refining industries to its efforts to stabilize the economy and shift to greener energy. The group points to a national poll showing that Americans, by a nearly two-to-one margin, strongly favor more regulation of the oil and refining industries.

"Mr. Chu and the rest of the president-elect's energy team will face a lobbying backlash from Exxon and friends, who have run rampant on national energy policy during the Bush years," said Judy Dugan, research director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Consumer Watchdog. "Consumer Watchdog's poll results will give the Obama team ammunition to resist this powerful lobby."

In its letter to Obama and Chu, Consumer Watchdog said:

"A new poll finds that Americans support Energy Department regulation of the refining industry by a nearly two-to-one margin. The national poll of 840 registered voters is a measure of their anger at government acquiescence to the oil business and readiness to see companies as well as energy markets better-regulated.

"When asked whether the Department of Energy should be given the power to regulate oil producers and refineries, voters favor the idea by a wide double-digit margin.

* Nearly four in 10 (39%) approve of such regulation, while only one in five (20%) are opposed.

* The intensity of support is all on the "favor" side. "Strong" support outpaces "strong" opposition by 17 points (30% strong favor; 13% strong oppose).

* Around four in 10 (40%) remain "undecided."

The refining industry has become highly concentrated in the U.S., and has over the past few years, particularly in 2006 and 2007, increasingly used production cutbacks to spike refining profits. To increase U.S. energy security and quell deliberate oil industry profit surges, Consumer Watchdog asked the new administration to:

* Give the Energy Secretary the authority to require refineries to produce enough fuel to keep available a 30-day supply, which was the average on-hand supply as recently as the early 1990s, according to Energy Information Administration data. Such authority need be used only if there is evidence of supply restriction for price reasons, and prices are rising.

* Grant a similar authority to curb refiners' exports of refined fuels in times of rising demand or refinery outages.

Consumer Watchdog also, in the letter, reiterated its support of stronger oversight of energy trading markets to quell the speculative spikes that pushed cured oil prices to over $145 a barrel this year, and gasoline prices to well over $4.00 a gallon.

"There are many urgent issues before Obama and his appointees, and energy policy is one of them," said Dugan. "A roller coaster of energy prices batters the U.S. economy at the peak and shuts down green energy investment in the troughs. Careful regulation will quell the gyrations that prevent a shift to cleaner and cheaper energy."