WHEELING, W.Va. – U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin visited the northern panhandle Tuesday to talk about his "common sense approach to lower gas prices."

Manchin and local gas station owner, Rob Schmidt, of Schmidt Sunoco on Eoff Street, agree that because of just a few people, we’re all paying more.

“The more sources of oil you get, the more stability you have in the market, and then the same type of speculation you're getting from these people that speculate that there's uncertainty in the price, if something happens the price is going to go up, they're speculating on that," said Schmidt.

In his commonsense approach to lower gas prices, Manchin wants to crack down on speculators. His idea is to continue making visits just like the one to Wheeling today, to get more people involved in the battle over fluctuating oil prices.

“The Commodities Future and Trading Commission, we're asking them to step in, that's their job. Why are you letting them speculate 25 percent? Can we put a cap at 5 percent? Can we do something more reasonable? We're trying to put pressure on the commission to do their job. It's ridiculous to let them run amok like this," said Manchin.

Another idea Manchin has on how to ease the financial burden on drivers across the country, includes looking across the borders at our neighbors to the north. He is pushing the government to move forward with the Keystone XL Pipeline so the United State would be able to import oil from close allies in Canada and reduce our dependency on foreign oil fields. That pipeline project is currently being held up despite passing three years of environmental review.

“I was very happy that I got a chance to meet Senator Manchin and really express my frustrations along with the general public. My customers are very frustrated, they don't really feel like they have a say, so they just got to deal with it," said Schmidt.