Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Obama called on Congress to cut subsidies to the oil industry:

Right now, the biggest oil companies are raking in record profits –- profits that go up every time folks pull up into a gas station. But on top of these record profits, oil companies are also getting billions a year - billions a year in taxpayer subsidies -– a subsidy that they’ve enjoyed year after year for the last century

The Senate is expected to vote on a measure that cuts certain subsidies later Thursday. While it's future remains uncertain, the president has increasingly discussed the issue of energy as gas prices rise at the pump:

It’s not as if these companies can’t stand on their own. Last year, the three biggest U.S. oil companies took home more than $80 billion in profits. Exxon pocketed nearly $4.7 million every hour. And when the price of oil goes up, prices at the pump go up, and so do these companies’ profits. In fact, one analysis shows that every time gas goes up by a penny, these companies usually pocket another $200 million in quarterly profits. Meanwhile, these companies pay a lower tax rate than most other companies on their investments, partly because we’re giving them billions in tax giveaways every year.

Obama's full remarks after the jump:

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