SOUTHFIELD -- Senator Debbie Stabenow talked about gas prices Friday morning at a Marathon station in Southfield.  Stabenow told residents and business owners that with families spending as much on gas as they are on health care and groceries, it is more important now than ever to, quote, “stop oil companies from padding their profits with taxpayer dollars.”

Stabenow says that major oil companies are making profits of over 60-billion dollars a year by taking advantage of Americans who are paying for their gas with record high prices at the pump and then paying oil companies again on tax day.  Stabenow says that instead of giving away four-billion dollars a year in oil subsidies, she proposes that those dollars be used to reduce the deficit and fund new clean energy technologies.