Our Constituents' Number One Concern Is the High Price of Oil

OUR CONSTITUENTS' NUMBER ONE CONCERN IS THE HIGH PRICE OF OIL -- (House of Representatives - June 04, 2008)

Mrs. MUSGRAVE. Mr. Speaker, recently in my district of Colorado, I had an opportunity to talk to my constituents firsthand about the high cost of gasoline. I decided to go right to the gas station and go up and offer to pump my constituents' gas. Now, this is a very good way to get an honest opinion from someone who, quite frankly, is caught off guard to see a Member of Congress right there willing to pump their gas; and when I introduced myself, some of them recognized me, but others that don't, I introduce myself and I say, Would you like to talk to me about what is on your mind today? And almost to a person, they said, You mean besides the high cost of gasoline? And I knew, after spending a great deal of time at that gas station, that my constituents' number one concern is the high cost of gasoline.

They told me in various ways how its affecting their lives. I talked to one woman, Mr. Speaker, and she was telling me that she had to drive about 20 miles into Graley where she worked, and her fuel bill was getting so high that she literally thought about staying with relatives in town instead of driving the 20 miles each way to get home every night. It was putting such a financial burden on this lady. She was literally thinking about not going home every night but staying in town during the week and going home on the weekend.

I talked to another individual, and he at one time had a fleet of trucks that he operated. He had a trucking business. So he had firsthand knowledge about what the high cost of fuel is doing to the trucking industry. And as he and I stood there and talked, Mr. Speaker, we were remarking that when you go into stores in Colorado and around the Nation, there's an abundance of things on the shelves that we Americans can purchase and enjoy. But what most people don't think about is every one of those items was hauled in a truck. And truckers are experiencing a great deal of hardship lately with the high cost of fuel, and many of them are going out of business.

Now this gentleman that had the trucking business previously now has a trucking repair business, and he told me that the high cost of fuel had adversely affected this business that he had also.

I talked to another gentleman, and he works in Denver, Colorado, but drives from my district up there, and he was telling me that every week he is seeing the cost of gasoline go up and up and up, and he's thinking about how expensive his commute is becoming.

It is quite a burden on families. I talked to another individual that was older, and he had an older car, and I would presume that he was on a fixed income, Mr. Speaker. And this gentleman doesn't have the opportunity to get another job and work and earn more income. He has this fixed income. As he sees the price of gasoline going up, the cost to heat his home going up, and he, like many other senior citizens, are very concerned about their future and what they're going to do.

I would like to yield time, as much time as she may consume, to the gentlelady from Virginia.

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Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I thank the gentlelady. She has spoken very well about the impact on families with the high price of fuel and what we need to address those prices.

It's interesting, too, as we talk about families, we have schools. In my district, it's 7 1/2 hours from one side of my district to the other. We have rural school districts, and buses have to travel long distances, and now schools are trying to ascertain how they're going to pay the high cost of fuel, and there are changes coming up.

When you look at schools, they're doing things like going to the 4-day week. They're changing. They think of the money they can save if they don't have to transport the kids and heat the buildings and do those things during the day. So when they look at the fuel price for transportation, they're thinking they're going to go to this 4-day week.

Sadly, it's impacting sports and schools, and we know that many times sports is what keeps students in schools, and it has such a good role to play in their life, but they're having to curtail their driving for this because they can't afford it anymore and they might drop programs.

So schools that even want to do field trips, and this is especially enriching for students who perhaps may be in families where they can't afford to do many things, but these kids enjoy these school trips. These outings are very good for them, but schools are saying that students will have to pay for a fee for that or they will have to forgo their field trips.

This is having a huge impact on families and on schools.

I would like to yield now to the gentleman from Tennessee.

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Mrs. MUSGRAVE. I thank you both for your expertise in this area and also Mr. Davis as he spoke this evening.

Mr. Peterson, your charts and the case that you presented tonight are very clear before the American people. We all have a desire to go to alternatives. We all want to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. You talked about that 40 percent. 60 percent of that comes from very unstable areas of the world, and we know that, and we want to lessen that dependence that we have on them and become energy-independent, but this is a long road. We have to start right now, right here today, for the American people who are suffering with the high cost of energy.

I would just challenge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We talk about long-range planning. We always have to do long-range planning. We need to look at the big picture. Today are the solutions that the Republicans have come forth with--more domestic exploration. You have spoken so well, Mr. Peterson, to our Nation's being locked up, but nations around the world do energy exploration off their coasts in an environmentally sound way. There is no reason that America should not be doing that.

Look at the States like I am from, Colorado. There are abundant natural resources that we have, and there are the technologies that are available now with oil shale, and there is the future we have on that. We need to get to work on that right away.

You and I have talked and all of us have talked this evening about the lack of refinery capacity and how we can look clear back to the 1970s. We have not had any refineries built since then. We need to get away from this failed policy and get real in this country about what we need to do.

When I was at the pump, when I was talking to those people in Greeley, Colorado the other day, I saw firsthand how this is affecting the middle class, people who have to drive back and forth to work. You know, they want to be able to take their children to the baseball games this summer. They want their kids to participate in these things and to enjoy their summer in Colorado, but they are very worried. My folks who are on fixed incomes are very concerned about how they are going to get back and forth to the grocery store and to the doctor and how they will run the errands that they need to do. We need to respond as Members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, to this crisis that is right here now before our middle class, and we need to bring forth these solutions that we have suggested tonight to bring down the cost of energy.

It is time for Congress to act, and every day that goes by that we do not enact sound policies that will allow us to do domestic exploration in an environmentally sound way--yes, move to alternatives, do these things that we need to do, increase refinery capacity--we are letting the American people down. I am standing tonight with my colleagues to say it is time to address this problem for the middle class and for the United States and to get on the road to energy independence but, in the here and now, to bring down the cost of energy.

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