[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 15, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H415]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HEATING OIL CRISIS IN NORTHEAST

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine (Mr. Baldacci) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, today in the Northeast, we are confronted 
with a heating oil crisis of epic proportions. We have seen the price 
of petroleum skyrocket 166 percent over the course of a year. The 
diesel fuel that is required in order to move goods from one end of the 
State to the markets in Boston and New York has gone over $2 a gallon. 
There are potatoes in storage of the current crop. It is estimated that 
there are 16,000 per hundredweight that were cultivated and grown and 
that are in storage and 13,000 of them are still there, unable to be 
moved to market, and if they are forced to stay there, the United 
States Government, the United States Department of Agriculture will 
have to pick up the tab. We have many sectors of the economy that we 
have seen a negative impact. Airline ticket prices have had surcharges. 
There have been traffic and tourism and economic development that has 
not taken place because of the higher fuel cost. We had a meeting last 
week with the Secretary of Energy in the Longworth House Office 
Building where over 40 Members, Democratic and Republican and 
Independent, all voiced the concerns of the citizens and the 
constituents that we all represent to the Secretary that the action of 
the administration was not sufficient given the crisis that was 
confronting people.
  In my State of Maine, we are confronted with double hardships, 
because in our State which is 36th in per capita wage income, where 
people have a hard time making ends meet, anyway, have very few dollars 
for disposable income. Yet they have seen their oil bills double and 
triple. Maine's older population, they are a poorer population, they 
are living in a rural area that depend upon fuel and utilities to be 
able to stay warm, to be able to make sure that they are getting their 
goods and medicine, and to be forced to be choosing between fuel, food 
and medications is a triple hardship for these people.
  We have been asking for a concerted effort, a comprehensive approach 
to this situation here with the Federal Energy Secretary Richardson who 
is coming to Maine and to Boston tomorrow as part of an energy summit. 
We are asking the President to engage in strong diplomacy with OPEC and 
non-OPEC states, because within our region of the country, most of the 
petroleum and the distiller products which they refer to end up coming 
from the Gulf Coast region of the country into the Northeast region. 
But we still have petroleum products that are coming in from Venezuela, 
from the Virgin Islands and from Canada. It is important for this 
administration to be making sure that that fuel is getting into the 
market and that the prices are stabilized or decreasing. We are 
recognizing that even Iraq is withholding oil from the energy mix just 
to penalize people during this very difficult time. When we have aided 
the countries of Mexico and Venezuela and other countries, Saudi 
Arabia, we have aided them in their times of need, we are asking the 
President and the Secretary of Energy to engage in strong measures to 
make sure that those countries recognize that we need them to increase 
the output. We are looking at gasoline prices being at record levels. 
Tourist season is down the road and one of the largest industries in 
our region of the country and we are going to see this negatively 
impacted.
  As a matter of reference, there was testimony today before the 
Transportation appropriations subcommittee that because of the higher 
prices of fuel, we are seeing a decline in automobile and truck traffic 
and we are seeing a negative impact on our surface transportation 
dollars that were gauged for a certain amount of activity, we are 
seeing a negative impact. We have seen a negative impact on agriculture 
estimated by the United States Department of Agriculture, $1 billion of 
lost farm income because of the circumstances here that we are looking 
at with these higher costs that have to be borne by the farmers. We are 
seeing it going across the board.
  I recognize that there may be some regions of the country that are 
not experiencing these higher prices. But I also recognize that we have 
the impact that goes across the board. One thing has always been 
certain here in Congress, when one part of the country has been 
hurting, we all stand together because at other times through our 
country's history in the last years, we have seen these impacts 
throughout the country on a national basis with emergencies and 
disasters.
  We are asking for comprehensive legislation with these special 
orders, we are asking for action on the part of the administration so 
that people do not have to be victimized in the Northeast again.

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