As Travel Season Begins, High Gasoline Prices Taking Their Toll on New Jersey Families
As Travel Season Begins, High Gasoline Prices Taking Their Toll on New Jersey Families
Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today released a report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee that details the severe impact of soaring gasoline prices on New Jersey drivers, five years after President Bush and Vice President Cheney unveiled the Administration's energy plan and after 95 percent of the recommendations have been implemented.
"The impact of these high prices on New Jersey families is severe," said Rep. Holt. "The average two-car family in New Jersey is paying $1,800 more per year for gasoline than they paid in 2001. This is money that could be used to pay for health insurance, college tuition, or retirement savings. Instead, it is fattening the pockets of oil company executives, who have seen record profits as New Jersey families struggle to make ends meet."
The report confirms what New Jersey drivers have seen for themselves: gasoline prices have risen rapidly over the past five years. Gasoline that cost $1.63 in May 2001 costs $2.91 today, an increase that is seven times faster than the rate of inflation. New Jersey motorists will pay a total of $5.2 billion more for gasoline than they would have paid in 2001. Motorists in the Monmouth-Ocean area have seen the highest increase among areas in the 12th Congressional District, with prices rising 77 percent. Prices have risen 75 percent in the Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon area, and 70 percent in the Trenton area.
The administration's 2001 energy task force, led by Vice President Cheney, developed 105 recommendations. In announcing the plan, President Bush asserted, "If we fail to act on this plan, energy prices will continue to rise." In March 2005 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman stated that 95 percent of those recommendations have been implemented.
"The Bush Administration's energy plan' has succeeded only in making us more dependent than ever on foreign oil, subsidizing fossil fuel companies at a time when they are raking in record profits, and forcing New Jersey families to pay $1,800 more per year for fuel," said Rep. Holt. "We need a real energy plan for our country that reduces fossil fuels, makes us less dependent on foreign oil, encourages conservation, and invests meaningfully in sustainable and renewable forms of energy."
http://www.holt.house.gov/list/press/nj12_holt/052606.html