Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - November 20, 2008)
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, in mid-June, I asked Idahoans to share with me how high energy prices are affecting their lives, and they responded by the hundreds. The stories, numbering well over 1,200, are heartbreaking and touching. While energy prices have dropped in recent weeks, the concerns expressed remain very relevant. To respect the efforts of those who took the opportunity to share their thoughts, I am submitting every e-mail sent to me through an address set up specifically for this purpose to the Congressional Record. This is not an issue that will be easily resolved, but it is one that deserves immediate and serious attention, and Idahoans deserve to be heard. Their stories not only detail their struggles to meet everyday expenses, but also have suggestions and recommendations as to what Congress can do now to tackle this problem and find solutions that last beyond today. I ask unanimous consent to have today's letters printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
We are glad to hear that at least one of our politicians is concerned about how the gasoline prices are affecting the middle class. Most of us feel that our government is extremely out of touch with the majority of the country.
We are retired on a fixed income and we worked hard all our lives and saved to get a motor home for vacations, but unfortunately we now cannot use it because of the price of gasoline and it just sits there. We try to go out shopping for groceries and any other necessities just once a week, making a list of items and stores, color coding so we do not forget anything. The cost of energy also has increased the price of groceries tremendously, so basic foods and produce are the norm--doing away with any treats. We have never seen the price of gasoline increase day by day and a nickel to a dime at a time.
We desperately need to have alternate sources of energy, such as coal, windmills, solar and nuclear. We should have been building new refineries and recovering oil off all of our coasts since the 1970s when this same problem came up at that time, but, to our shame, we did not.
Automobiles should get a lot more than the 35 mpg that we have heard mentioned for future vehicles. It should be at the very least 60 mpg, and there is no reason in this world with our technology that this could not be a reality. Something should be done to increase the mileage on all of the vehicles that are already on the road. This is never mentioned. We cannot just go out and buy a hybrid or other fuel efficient vehicle at the drop of a hat to help the situation. We drive our 2002 Honda 4 cylinder between 55 and 60 mph on the highway to increase our fuel efficiency and you should see the bad looks we get. Highway mileage should be lowered to 55 mph like in the 70s to help conserve.
We do hope that our government does something quickly to improve this situation and that it is not handled like it was in the 70s--all talk and no action. We need to be dependent on no one but ourselves for our energy needs. No one is going to take care of the USA and its citizens but the USA itself.
We need some action now--Please.
ROBERT AND ROBERTA, Idaho Falls.
--
Thanks for the opportunity to respond to your e-letter regarding energy costs and gasoline prices. I agree that we in the US are far too dependent on petroleum for energy. But I think it is a selfish and short-sighted view to defeat the climate change legislation. Our focus should be, as you mentioned, on using less petroleum, not searching for petroleum everywhere we can, no matter the ecological cost. It is true; we do not have good mass transit in Idaho and especially in the more densely populated Treasure Valley. I think tax dollars would be well spent to improve the mass transit situation in the Valley.
We need to give tax incentives to clean, renewable energy sources and rescind the tax breaks given to the huge oil companies who have been reaping record profits at the expense of all Americans. The answer is in conservation which includes improved mass transit and in alternative transportation where there would be improved avenues for bicycling and walking.
It is true. I will not be driving as far for vacation this year, though I would like to explore areas in Idaho I have not yet seen. It now becomes an expensive venture just to get to the Sawtooths or White Clouds.
TIM, Boise.
--
I am contacting my Congressman about energy just as you have encouraged your constituents to do. I am in dismay, however, at the continued opportunism and political grandstanding. That is, the only answer I see from many is to drill more oil. Every credible energy scientist and economist knows that this will do little or nothing to curb our foreign oil imports and zero to reduce the cost of fuel. Yet, despite this ever-predictable call for more domestic oil production, you flatly concede that ``speculation [is] now driving up the cost of oil.'' So I ask: why are you and your colleagues still calling for more drilling when you know what it is you can do now to reduce fuel costs? Why are you not regulating ``the speculation now driving up the cost of oil''? Commodities speculators are at the heart of extreme oil prices, not supply and demand imbalances. We do not want to hear any red herring arguments about the average Joe's retirement portfolio owning the bulk of oil company shares. The issue is speculation; the answer is regulation of speculation.
JASON, Moscow.
--
Last week I heard on the news that you have received many letters and e-mails related to high gas prices. Hence, I have decided to write in and give you my two cents on the matter.
I believe that the primary culprit that is causing high gas prices is globalization; particularly in the emerging economies of China and India. The rapid growth of their economies has drastically increased their demand for petroleum.
Along with developing a comprehensive energy policy, the executive and legislative branches of our federal government need to re-examine our economic policies, particularly in areas of foreign trade. During the past two decades, the American middle class has gotten the short end of the straw when it has come to previous trade policies. One does not have to look farther than our orchard industry in the Treasure Valley. These trade policies have really only benefitted the very wealthy in our country. When I was in college ten years ago, we talked about globalization in one of my classes and how if China copied the U.S.'s consumption then we would be paying a premium for gas. This is now reality.
In conclusion, too often our government fails to look long-term. It is time for a change. We need to do in-depth independent analysis on our trade policies to determine what the long term effect will be on the average American. Government policies need to benefit society as a whole rather than a few. Our society is too self-centered on the ``me'' rather than on the collective ``community''. We also need to have a comprehensive energy policy. This policy needs to be long term and address conservation, efficiency, alternative and renewable sources of energy, and possibly take into consideration additional domestic production of oil with stringent environmental safeguards and firm consequences for those companies that fail to comply with those safeguards.
BRENT DANIELSON, Boise.
--
I am a single father of two sons, 3 years and 13 months old. I am a truck driver. I make decent money and have good benefits. But these fuel prices have gone too far for our society! I am lucky I work at a place where I can get a free bag of potatoes every once in a while because I cannot go grocery shopping because it is all too expensive! Wages have not changed a bit. I am sick of it and I am losing almost all of my faith in our government and the people representing the common people like me. One of my best friends who was an owner-operator had to quit because diesel got too high for him to profit much at all. Now it is been three weeks and they just got their phone shut off two days ago and their power shut off today. My stimulus money has gone to my power bill, gas bill, rent etc. Sure you do not like to fill up your gas tank but does it cripple you financially like it does many, many people?! I think not. I have always stuck up for our local and federal government on many issues and criticized them on other issues, but this time I as well as many people are fed up. Seriously this time, I am to the point now where I am struggling to make ends meet. I have spent over $60 in the last three days in gas just to get to work and back--that is it! And I am close to empty again and I have to get diapers for my son before I go to work tomorrow. The diaper money is coming out of the power bill money I had put back. You need to sound off and be heard. At least make it known to us that you are voicing our concerns!
CAMERON, Boise.
--
My husband and I are retired, he is military retired and we recently purchased a small travel trailer since he can no longer ride his motorcycle and our maiden voyage with it cost $300 in gas to go 200 miles round trip! Between gas and food prices, we cannot afford to go anywhere, much less eat out. We have changed our daily living dramatically, and it is not a happy way to be in your retirement years.
We urge you and all of Congress to start drilling in our nation and bring back more nuclear power plants. We must relieve ourselves of dependence on foreign oil ASAP. Lord only knows what our grandchildren have to look forward to at this insane rate!
ANGELO, Hayden Lake.
--
I will get right to the point--my wife and I are out of money. Our incomes have not changed and our incomes used to pay our bills with money to spare. We have a 91 Honda wagon and a 99 minivan, we pay $50 and $70 to fill them up. Grocery prices are up 100% in the last couple years because gas prices are killing the trucking industry. Expensive gas has made almost everything else expensive. Today, after filling both our cars with gas and grocery shopping, (with a list, mind you), we ran out of money. For the first time ever, we put groceries on a credit card. We are not credit card people, so this is anathema to us.
When I turn on the TV or radio I hear some politician telling us that drilling will not make a difference for ten years. As an engineering student, I cannot stomach that level of [deception]. First of all, I do not believe that is true and second, if it were true, then we sure better get started. What if every time an education bill were introduced, we responded by saying that we would not see the results for 12 years so let us not do it. What if I told my child not to go to college because they would not see a payoff for at least four years so do not bother. We are financially dying and our so-called leaders are regurgitating some of the stupidest things I have ever heard.
The bottom line is this: This planet does not exist for its own sake, it exists for ours. We are not here by some cosmic accident; we are here by design and our designer gave us the tools we need to live and prosper. The failure to drill for new oil and create new refineries is the result of environmental philosophies, which are based on evolutionary thinking. To the environmentalist, our purpose here is no more significant than that of any other animal, and we, by accident of evolution, happen to have the power to sustain or destroy this environment. Without a cosmic caretaker, the earth itself becomes our only god and the environmentalist shows his worship by reducing or eliminating human impact upon it and by treating humans as vermin. It is an old religion and I am tired of suffering at the hands of it is misguided priests.
Please do your best to release energy, specifically nuclear and oil, to the free market system. Irrational environmental policy and regulation have prohibited natural market forces from creating more supply and oil-pricing based on speculation has prevented the market from determining price. Imagine going to Wal-Mart to buy a t-shirt and finding that they now cost $100; and when you ask the owner why this was so, he replies that speculators determined that cotton crops would fail next year, so in preparation they have raised prices early. As you know, this is not how prices are determined. The cotton producer charges as much as he can based on his costs and competitors prices and Wal-Mart charges a markup. If cotton crops indeed fail next year, then the buyer pays more for the rare product and they pass the increase to the consumer. When oil speculators set price, we pay increases at the pumps whether those speculations came true or not. There is no real connection to supply. Please work to make this kind of price setting illegal and please work to release drilling and refinement. The further we remove a commodity from the free market grid by socialist controls and uneducated environmental policy the more the people, you claim to represent, are hurt. Make the American dream possible by making it affordable.
JASON, Boise.
--
The rising cost of fuel has a tremendous effect on my household consisting of my husband and myself. I am sole support for our family. Senator, as you know, wages in Idaho fall behind many other states. The cost of gas is outrageous and I blame the Congress for a lot of it. Why are we not drilling in Alaska? Why are we not building refineries away from coasts where hurricanes have a tendency to hit? Why are not all of our refineries running full bore?
There was a Democratic senator from the South who retired, I forget his name but he wrote a book, ``A Grand Party No More''. Before he retired, he went to see for himself where we would drill in Alaska. He said there would be no harm to anyone or anything, it is so far out in no man's land. He said if there was a leak it would be of no consequence as it would freeze the minute it hit the ground. It is time we push the environmentalists to the wall and out of the way. I believe in saving trees and wildlife, but there is no danger to any of these where we would drill. I recognize that we need to become independent of so much oil but how do we do that. I drive a `95 Forerunner and it is paid for. Not the best gas mileage but it is paid for. I cannot afford any kind of a car payment for one of those new hybrids. Rebates are nothing, $2,000 in exchange for $26,000? The cost of a new car buys an awful lot of gas. My income does not allow for any car payment.
Everything is going crazy! A loaf of bread that cost $2.89 last year is now $4.29. Anything with corn or wheat is gone out of sight. We pay farmers not to grow wheat and now I hear we have to import it? How sad for America. America has sold its soul to China, Mexico, Japan. If we were ever to go into another world war, we could not even build what we would need to fight it. Is there a steel mill left in America? Is there a textile mill left in America? You would be pretty hard pressed to find one, a sad statement on us.
As to what I do? No trips during the week except to work and back. If I can do any errand on the way, great, otherwise, it waits till the weekend. I plan one trip, one circle. If something is missed, too bad, it is missed. The real clincher is this, I tithe to my church, I give the Lord 10% of my gross income. It costs me almost as much, $10 less, to keep my car in gasoline between paychecks. Now I think it is pretty awful when I have to give the gas company as much as I give the Lord. He gives me everything I have, the gas company gives me nothing except anger when I hear of the profits they make. And I think that pretty well sums it up, 10% to the Lord vs. almost as much to the gas company!
DIANNE, Hayden Lake.
--
I am a taxi driver here in Boise. In a year's time, the cost to fill my tank has increased nearly 100% but my average fare has remained static. If it were not for my military retirement, I would no longer make enough to cover basic costs and make a profit. I am 61 years old and am not practiced in a marketable skill so the prospect of making a move to another occupation is nil. My only reasonable hope is that Boise will increase our per mile fees in the near future; it is unlikely that fuel prices will decrease in the near future.
I have been watching your position on domestic drilling with interest. Though alternative energy sources are imperative for the future of America, I am pleased to see that you share my position that energy self-reliance is the immediate solution to our present crisis. I applaud you and urge you to continue your good work and prosecute this agenda with rigor.
EARLE, Boise.
--
Not only is the fuel much too high but I cannot find employment. I am over 60, have experience, but it seems I am ``over-qualified'' or I need more ``experience''. What a lot of rubbish! I call it age discrimination, but that is difficult to prove. With the fuel prices so high, if I do find employment, it will take a huge chunk of my pay just to get back and forth to work. Are unemployment benefits going to be extended for Idaho residents? My benefits ended this week, no hope of a job in sight and my husband can not work due to medical reasons. What is a person to do?
Getting Desperate.
JANET, Emmett.
--
As Director of Gritman Adult Day Health which provides day health care for elders who want to remain in their own home in Moscow and Latah County, I am including an article from the NY Times which talks about the cost of gas and how it affects rural elderly. It is very sad that these folks who often aren't able to drive are so affected by the cost of gas. Please do everything you can to remedy this: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121263496261947543.html?mod=googlenews < wsj
BARB, Moscow.
--
Gasoline prices are now far too high for the average family, and causing increasing rises in the cost of living in many other areas. For instance, every time one goes to the grocery store, an increase in pricing is noted on items, and thus causing many to have to go without needed supplies. Saving a percentage of income has become just a dream for many, and others cannot make ends meet without going into further debt.
BEVERLY, Parma.
--
Yes, gas has gotten way out of hand. Do what you can to decrease the costs and return to a life with some normalcy.
DIANA, Kootenai.
--
Thank you for at least noticing that we have a problem with the cost. I do not believe, however, that anything can be done with out us paying somewhere else. I make a good living working for the military here in Boise but am still unable to put any money aside. It is funny that every time we receive a pay raise that the price of fuel goes up and our health care premiums grow as well, so you never see any savings. Thanks again; good luck with this effort.
CLINTON, Emmett.
Source