[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 41 (Monday, April 11, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3366-S3367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE GASOLINE CRISIS--A TIME FOR ACTION

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, in my home State of West Virginia and all 
across America, our people are frustrated and outraged with the soaring 
cost of gasoline.
  The rising cost of gasoline means workers in West Virginia are seeing 
their paychecks dramatically reduced by the simple fact that they have 
to drive to get to work and to get back home. It is darned difficult 
and expensive for a coal miner to pay $2.25 a gallon to drive his 
pickup truck to work on the two-lane, hilly, winding roads of West 
Virginia.
  Noting that West Virginians have become ``hawkish about watching gas 
prices,'' the Charleston, WV, Gazette of March 11, 2005, pointed out 
that they ``have few mass transportation options, travel farther to 
work, and often traverse [much] more rugged terrain.''
  Automobiles are essential for West Virginians to get to work. 
According to Census data, although West Virginia is a relatively small 
State, workers in West Virginia spend more time commuting to work than 
the national average.
  Mr. President, 86 percent of West Virginians use cars or trucks to 
get to work, and nearly 75 percent of West Virginians commute by 
themselves in their pickup trucks and other such vehicles.
  The percentage of people in West Virginia who own a pickup truck is 
almost double the national average. Nearly one-third of West Virginians 
must travel outside their home county to get to work. Let me say that 
again. Nearly one-third of West Virginians must travel outside their 
home county to get to work, a figure that is 17 percent above the 
national average, and an average West Virginian drives more miles--now 
get this--the average West Virginian drives more miles each year than 
average Americans throughout the rest of the country.
  The point is this: West Virginians rely on their cars and their 
pickup trucks to keep West Virginia working. Large, rugged vehicles are 
not an expensive luxury for workers in West Virginia and in many other 
rural States, and anyone who has tried to navigate the narrow, uphill 
climbs of West Virginia's mountains by weaving around corners, 
constantly slowing, constantly accelerating and stopping and starting 
knows the need for these rugged vehicles and, regrettably, the cost of 
fueling them.
  Imagine navigating that kind of terrain not only to work but also in 
getting children to school, as well as to the grocery store.
  The frustration and the outrage of West Virginians paying $25, $30, 
and $45 just to gas up is certainly understandable.
  Family budgets already strained by the rising costs of health 
insurance, the rising costs of college tuition, and other everyday 
expenses are being stretched even thinner by these recordbreaking 
gasoline prices in West Virginia. West Virginia's small businesses 
depend on deliveries. Floral shops, pizza parlors, produce shippers, 
taxi companies, construction and remodeling businesses, plumbers, 
electricians, landscapers are finding it harder to make ends meet. Many 
are going out of business.
  I recently read of an independent trucker who lives and works in 
Norfolk, VA, telling the Christian Science Monitor that last year she 
paid more than $250 a week for fuel, and that was making her life as a 
single parent very difficult. She was even forced to decide between 
paying a doctor bill for her child or buying new tires for her truck. 
Guess who lost. ``My truck lost,'' she explained.
  Today's record high gasoline prices in West Virginia are affecting 
literally everyone from commuters, consumers, and businesses to public 
and private agencies. Meals on Wheels programs are having trouble 
delivering meals. Think of it. Local governments already straining to 
pay for essential services in these days of cutbacks in Federal 
assistance are simply overwhelmed in their efforts to keep schoolbuses, 
police cars, firetrucks, and other city and county vehicles in 
operation. What a shame.

[[Page S3367]]

  The damage is devastating and is everywhere. Last year, polling data 
showed that more than half of the American people said the rising cost 
of gasoline had been hard on them financially while more than a third 
said it had caused them serious problems. U.S. consumer confidence fell 
for a third month in March, and this is being attributed to the cost of 
gasoline. It is awful. It is terrible.
  At one time, inflation was called the cruelest tax. Soaring energy 
costs are the ecumenical tax. Did everyone get that? Soaring energy 
costs are the ecumenical tax. Why? They tax everyone with a car or a 
truck--everyone, regardless of race, sex, age, occupation. Low-income 
workers are being hit the hardest, however, as they usually have to 
travel the farthest to work because of the need for affordable housing. 
They have less access to mass transportation. One can understand that 
when they look at those mountains in West Virginia. And they drive 
older, less fuel-efficient vehicles.
  As the American people cry out for help in this current crisis, what 
do they do? They look to Washington for action. The White House's 
response to this outcry has been to moan and groan about the failure of 
Congress to pass its so-called energy plan and recycle old legislation.
  When it comes to dealing with today's energy mess, the White House is 
out of gas. For three Congresses, an energy bill has clanged about 
Washington like Marley's ghost. The administration's national energy 
policy has been drafted by special interests, ironed out behind closed 
doors now and presented as a fait accompli for Members to support, take 
it or leave it. But the national energy policy in its totality would do 
little to seriously address our energy needs now or in the long term.
  The only major provisions that might provide tangible progress are 
the energy tax incentives, but these, too, could be a mirage as the 
President's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget only provides $6.7 billion 
over the next 10 years for all energy incentives, only about a third of 
what was provided 2 years ago in the Senate Energy bill. Analysis by 
the Department of Energy's own Energy Information Administration, EIA, 
of the Energy bill of the 108th Congress has clearly shown that the 
bill would have a negligible impact on increasing production, reducing 
consumption, lowering imports, or affecting energy prices. Now, take 
that home for dinner.

  Furthermore, this administration actually significantly slashes 
funding for oil and gas research programs. Like its agricultural 
policies, the administration's energy policy promises the American 
people a rose garden. It ruminates with much rhetoric but then fails to 
fertilize with funding.
  While the White House has failed to propose any serious policy 
options or take any action to remedy the current crisis, I am 
suggesting that it is time--it is time, I say to the White House--to 
get serious. It is time that this Nation makes the necessary 
investments so we can reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
  What does this mean? It means getting the next generation of vehicles 
on the road. It means investing in fuels that can be made from 
domestically secure sources such as agricultural residues and through 
coal gasification. It means investments in building. It means upgrading 
our refining and pipeline infrastructure in order to move our petroleum 
products to market.
  At the end of the day, it requires that we set our sights on the goal 
of getting off foreign oil. Senator Bingaman sent a letter to the 
Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental 
Protection Agency in April 2004. That letter laid out 13 concrete 
actions that President Bush could take to respond to high gasoline 
prices. I concurred with many of these recommendations in a letter to 
the President myself in May 2004. However, this administration has not 
followed through on any of these suggestions.
  Right now, more than ever, what we need are not only long-term 
policies but also near-term programs and actions that address the 
immediate problem. For one thing, as the great British economist John 
Maynard Keynes reminded us, ``In the long run we are all dead.''
  I am also reminded of the response that an aide to President Franklin 
Roosevelt gave when asked why the administration was acting so quickly 
and forcefully at the time to put people back to work during the dark 
days of the Great Depression--I lived in them--when in the long run 
market forces would eventually do it. The aide, Harry Hopkins, snapped: 
People do not eat in the long run. They eat every day.
  While we do need long-term energy policies to reduce our dependency 
on foreign energy, we still drive cars every day during the dark days 
of these soaring gasoline prices. American workers, American consumers, 
and American small businesses suffer because of the failure of their 
Government to provide short-term relief.
  Here are some suggestions which might provide assistance. The White 
House could direct the Secretary of Energy to suspend the delivery of 
oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until market conditions improve. 
We might consider liberalizing the vehicle depreciation allowance 
to assist workers who daily commute more than 30 miles one way to work, 
and $15.5 billion in targeted tax incentives over the next 10 years, 
including $2 billion to deploy advanced clean coal technologies, would 
help to strengthen the economy, enhance our Nation's energy resources, 
promote an array of advanced energy technologies and increase jobs 
while promoting a healthy government.

  Yes, we can do more. We can do plenty. We need an investigation into 
what is going on and why the people in West Virginia and other States 
are getting squeezed, why the people in West Virginia and other States 
are getting gouged, when huge oil companies are enjoying recordbreaking 
profits. I call on the White House to direct the Federal Trade 
Commission to review whether speculations in the futures market may be 
playing a role in driving up gasoline prices. I call for a 
congressional investigation to ascertain the role of oil companies in 
setting the steep price that West Virginians and people in other rural 
States pay at the pump.
  Finally, I urge the White House to stop wimping out and to confront 
OPEC. Press these oil-producing countries to increase oil supply to 
help stabilize global prices. While running for the Presidency, George 
Bush promised to get tough with OPEC, especially the Saudis. Now, Mr. 
President, is the time to do it.
  The White House should work on rehabilitating its own weak, creaky 
spine which has kept it from playing hardball with the foreign 
countries that sell us most of our oil. In his book, ``Plan of 
Attack,'' Bob Woodward reported that Saudi Arabia offered to fine-tune 
oil prices in the months before the 2004 Presidential election. Why not 
use the bully pulpit now to call for increased oil production? Why not 
dispatch the Secretary of State to OPEC countries to twist arms and 
knock heads together to get an increase in oil production? Why does the 
White House remain silent, as silent as a stone, when OPEC announces, 
as it did on March 30, that it had ruled out an increase in oil 
production? Why does the administration hold its tongue when Middle 
Eastern potentates collude to separate working Americans from their 
hard-earned dollars?
  Instead of reading headlines about tough administrative action to 
reduce oil prices, we read of scandals about lucrative billion-dollar, 
no-bid contracts for Iraqi oil fields. Instead of lowering prices at 
the pump in the USA, less than 18 months ago the White House asked 
Congress to approve $900 million in taxpayer money to send more 
gasoline to filling stations. Where? Baghdad.
  The President might not have a short-term energy strategy for the 
United States, but he has a great one for Iraq. The only problem is 
that the American people are paying for it twice, once on April 15, the 
day our income taxes are due, and once again on every trip to the 
filling station.
  I yield back the remainder of my time. I yield the floor and I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.




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