[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 113 (Thursday, July 10, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6554-S6555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES

  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 over 1,000, are heartbreaking 
and touching. To respect their efforts, I am submitting every e-mail 
sent to me through [email protected]
.gov 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:

       To whom it concerns:
       Here's how rising gas and diesel prices are affecting this 
     Idahoan and her family:
       We are a one-income (plus overtime) middle-income family 
     living in Boise. The huge increase in fuel prices has caused 
     subsequent increases in the price of consumer goods (due to 
     price increases for fuel to manufacture, transport, and 
     deliver consumer goods). Thus, our entire cost of living has 
     increased at a rate higher than that of my husband's annual 
     raise. Our standard of living is dropping, regardless of his 
     continued raises, and we are having to cut corners from our 
     budget, in every direction.
       Due to our sons' disabilities, it has been imprudent for me 
     to work full time. However, in light of the growing costs of 
     living due to fuel costs skyrocketing, I will most likely 
     need to return to work this year, NOT to purchase hobby 
     equipment or upgrade our vehicle, but to continue to make our 
     mortgage payment and to EAT PROPERLY.
       To our Congress: PLEASE STOP OUR DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN 
     FUELS. We're lining the pockets of oil-rich nations while 
     stealing the quality of life from our own citizens.
       Nuclear energy is NOT the way to go, in my opinion. The 
     dangerous waste by-products of nuclear-generated power are 
     not worth the savings in costs of energy to our citizens. 
     There are many other methods to generate energy for homes and 
     businesses (and vehicles) that are cleaner, renewable, and 
     completely non-polluting, such as solar energy; wind energy; 
     hydro-electric energy (why not let all the dams in our state 
     run at full capacity rather than leave one or two turbines 
     unused most of the time, and STORE the excess energy we 
     generate to keep our costs down, or sell it to profit our 
     state's economy); and the transformation of our society's 
     garbage into usable, non-polluting hydrogen fuel for vehicles 
     that run on hydrogen.
       There are always local (American) solutions to local 
     (American) problems.
     Teresa, Boise.
                                  ____

       I should think it would be obvious to all sentient beings 
     by now that we are on the wrong trajectory. The notion that 
     we can consume more and more each year without some 
     FUNDAMENTAL changes is wrong. I search your words in vain for 
     ideas about something new. No luck. Same old mindset. What 
     about conservation of finite resources? What about 
     alternative energy resource development? The large and very 
     profitable oil companies benefit enormously from tax breaks. 
     Where is the policy incentive for non-polluting alternate 
     forms of energy? Where are the incentives to promote more 
     efficient use of the old sources? Pull your head from the 
     sand. It is high time you realized a new era is upon us.
     Cristina.
                                  ____

       To Whom It May Concern,
       Fuel costs are killing the average citizen in Idaho. It is 
     bad enough that the price of getting to work is costing more 
     than many can afford, but the prices in the grocery stores 
     are also rising exponentially as the cost of shipping 
     skyrockets and the cost of running farm equipment to produce 
     the food skyrockets. To make things worse, Congress, once 
     again with good intentions but not a clue of the damage they 
     would do, are adding to the situation with the ridiculous 
     bio-fuels subsidies. Bio-fuels are horribly inefficient, but 
     the cost of corn to feed dairy cattle and fatten beef cattle 
     is becoming unaffordable. To make things worse, these 
     terrible incentives to plow up hay fields and raise corn is 
     leaving livestock owners unable to buy hay. Horses are being 
     turned loose or shot by owners who cannot get or afford hay 
     to feed them. Once again the bloated farm bill is putting 
     billions of dollars into the hands of a few farming 
     corporations while small farmers and livestock owners are 
     left to struggle against high fuel and feed costs created by 
     Congress. PLEASE repeal these stupid restrictions on oil 
     exploration and refining, as well as that awful subsidy on 
     bio-fuels. They are counterproductive and just plain stupid.
     Pat, Priest River.
                                  ____

       Dear Senator Crapo,
       High gas and energy prices are affecting everyone 
     negatively but I would rather respond to the second part of 
     your email.
       Americans are not ``too dependent on petroleum,'' as you 
     said; we are just too dependent on foreign petroleum. We can 
     thank Mr. Clinton and subsequent leaders and legislators for 
     the predicament we find ourselves in today. They have caved 
     in to the ``environmentalists'', a very small percentage of 
     Americans, and not allowed us to provide for our own oil 
     needs. These foolish politicians have put us and our economy 
     in a very precarious position.
       We need to pursue nuclear power and domestic drilling and 
     refining of petroleum and take control of providing for our 
     needs instead of relying on foreign volatile suppliers. If 
     Congress would pass just one piece of legislation to allow us 
     to drill and supply our own oil, our foreign suppliers would 
     drop prices immediately in fear that we will completely cut 
     them out of the loop someday. We do not need to continue any 
     ``food for fuel'' programs as you can see what that has done 
     to our economy and the food shortage in other parts of the 
     world.
       Finally, please inform others in Congress that our country 
     is a capitalistic society and that oil companies deserve to 
     profit for the risks they take and the product they supply to 
     Americans. If anybody has received a ``windfall'' it is the 
     federal, and to a lesser degree state, government which 
     receives undeserved profits. They receive much more money 
     from the sale of gas in our country than the oil companies 
     and they have not done one thing for the money they get for 
     each gallon sold. The latest figures I have read were that 
     oil companies average 4 percent of profit from each gallon 
     sold while taxes account for 16 percent of each gallon sold.
       Please understand that I am angered by this situation but 
     that anger is in no way directed at you. You have done a fine 
     job representing the views of us conservative Republicans in 
     Idaho. Keep up the good work.
           Sincerely,
     Robyn.
                                  ____

       Dear Senator,
       I'm a fan of yours, as is my wife. We both have been 
     registered Democrats all our lives, but in the mid-term 
     election of 2006, we both re-registered as Independents so as 
     to distance ourselves from our party, as they seem to have 
     gone off the deep end. I remember when Democrats were proud 
     Americans. And though there are a few of us left, most of the 
     party of Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Moore, Al Franken, and 
     certain Senators and Congressmen (and women) are little more 
     than Socialists. And that is giving them the benefit of the 
     doubt. My wife and I both voted for Reagan, by the way, and 
     we will vote Republican till we see a difference in the far 
     left that has taken over our party. Who knows? We may be 
     registered Republicans before too long.
       Enough about our distaste for the Democrat Party of today, 
     except to say that it seems voting on issues such as this go 
     down party lines, with even a few Republicans taking the 
     wrong side on issues such as energy, illegal immigration, and 
     homeland security which I consider to be one and the same.
       We know there are many billions of barrels of crude off our 
     shores, but the Democrats keep us from drilling. There is 
     even more possibly in the Dakotas and Montana, not to mention 
     the shale oil out here in the West and the coal-to-oil or 
     coal-to-gas technology. All we have to do is start drilling 
     and build more refineries and the price of oil from OPEC will 
     drop drastically! I dropped out of college, but I know this, 
     so Washington should too. I do not know what is up with

[[Page S6555]]

     the Democrats, but they want the United States to fail in 
     every way, it seems!
       Now, a little more about my wife and I. We are both 
     disabled after working hard all our lives and had a good 
     income till our disabilities set in. She went down first, and 
     I followed a few years later. God put us together for a 
     reason, I have to believe. It must be so we could lean on 
     each other. But needless to say we live on a small, fixed 
     income and, eight years ago, my wife's mother had to come and 
     live with us because she has Alzheimer's Disease. We got 
     along OK, I guess, till the gas prices shot up.
       I remember 1973 and 1981. I know the prices go up and never 
     come back down to the point they were, even long after the 
     ``crisis'' is over. In ten or so years, it is possible we 
     could be self-sufficient as far as petroleum and natural gas 
     go. If we drill everywhere we can, build refineries to 
     process the crude, in 10-12 years, we could have gas prices 
     back to something where we could afford to eat.
       Because it is not just the gas prices, it is everything 
     that has to be trucked or shipped by air. Airlines are going 
     belly up, we cannot afford to eat food that is good for us so 
     we have to go to a high starch, low protein diet which will 
     kill us quicker. The long term solution is other means and 
     other types of fuel. But in the short term, the NOW term, we 
     need to drill and I'll even say, having lived in Alaska for a 
     few years, if people knew how vast the 49th state is, they 
     would say ``Go right ahead, drill!'' Because it would not 
     hurt any animals, the pipeline could hook right up to the one 
     that already runs from Prudoe Bay to Valdez. It is simple 
     really, but Congress has always found a way to make it hard. 
     Our whole government seems to be ``out of touch'' with its 
     citizens' needs.
       Did you know that ANWR is 700 miles from the nearest tree? 
     There is nothing there! But oil if we drill it. And we 
     wouldn't have to drill there if we drilled off shore, in the 
     Dakotas and Montana, used coal-to-oil technology. The ocean 
     floor pollutes more in seepage than drilling ever could 
     because we have ``green'' technology, and they do not shoot 
     up toward the skies anymore like the old black and white 
     movies always show it.
       But these gas prices just kill people like my wife and 
     others in our situation. We get our fair share every month on 
     the third because we both started working when we were 
     teenagers (I was told this helped with the money part), and 
     my wife's mother is 71 and worked her whole life. But we are 
     still a family of three with kids who are grown, and six 
     wonderful grandchildren who we like to make sure their 
     birthdays and Christmases are filled with gifts from us that 
     cost money which we do not have. If I could afford a Prius, 
     I'd buy one! (maybe). But the fact is I have a '96 Plymouth 
     Voyager and that has to last me the rest of my life, 
     hopefully.
       So I need lower gas prices and, as I ramble on here (you 
     invited me to--LOL), I know the solution and so do most of 
     the Republicans and even some Democrats, except they won't 
     let us drill. It seems that the parties have to follow like 
     lemmings and they just cannot think for themselves.
       Other countries are drilling OUR oil right off our coasts! 
     They are, and I'll tell you how. They drill down and then 
     make a 60-90 degree turn and go under our waters and even 
     under our land and are going to get our oil while leasing 
     waters from Cuba! This, sir, makes me sick!!! If I were in 
     charge, I'd drill right through a polar bear's skull, if I 
     had to, to get at the oil that we have more of than Saudi 
     Arabia! We do! OK. Not really.
       But the polar bear was put on the endangered species list, 
     when they have grown sixfold in number (where's the sense in 
     that?). There are five, six times as many polar bears now 
     than there were 255 years ago, and NOW they decide to put 
     them on the endangered species list? And merely to keep us 
     from drilling in Alaska. I'll close by saying this: Please 
     try to persuade all Republicans and any Democrats you know 
     that may come over to the common sense side of it all and 
     allow us to drill! That is the only way we will be energy 
     self-sufficient in the next ten years, unless Al Gore is 
     going to buy me an electric minivan.
       And just a quick note: I do not know if I believe global 
     warming exists, but even more, I am pretty sure that, if it 
     does indeed exist, man is not responsible for it. I have 
     personally talked to scientists and saw an interview on the 
     ``Glenn Beck'' program with the founder of ``The Weather 
     Channel'' and he said that global warming or climate change 
     is the biggest hoax ever pulled on the American people and 
     the world! It is merely a cycle the earth goes through and if 
     you look back to about 60-70 years ago, you'd see the same 
     cycles and temperatures and storms, etc.
       OK, Senator, I'm done. I hope you find time to personally 
     read this, because you are one of the good ones who seems to 
     be in touch with the people's needs, along with the country's 
     needs. You have always done a good job and, for the most 
     part, I like the way you vote.
           Thank you,
     Richard and Kelley.
                                  ____

       Now you are talking, Senator. . . . If more Senators and 
     Congress Representatives started asking the people to share 
     their thoughts, ideas, and struggles that we are all being 
     put through with this energy crisis, we could believe that 
     government really had our interest at heart, instead of just 
     their own. I have done a lot of research in past months, and 
     find it hard to understand with all the oil we have here in 
     our own country, and we know we have it. Why do we go 
     elsewhere for it and, literally, held ransom while someone 
     else profits?
       And on another issue of being held hostage for energy, are 
     all these utility companies. We always hear on the news, how 
     much profit they made, and then how much more it is going to 
     cost us, ``We the People,'' for its use, and then they have 
     the gall to announce their big corporate raises. If we have 
     to suffer the higher costs, then they should also, by waiving 
     their raises until things are under control again. That is my 
     thought on this, as well as many others.
       We are a family of four seniors on fixed incomes, all with 
     health issues. My mom is 85, bedridden. And my brother-in-law 
     is a three-time cancer survivor, a shell of a man. He served 
     two terms in Vietnam in the midst of Agent Orange and cannot 
     even get any veteran's compensation. His wife is his 
     caregiver, and she suffers horribly from fibromyalgia. I'm a 
     widow and a caregiver for my mom, who is also now a widow. We 
     have had to come together in order to survive. So we have to 
     watch carefully every penny we spend. We live 15 miles out of 
     town, and have to watch how many trips we take into town so 
     as not to waste gas. We have cut back to using one car, and 
     try to correlate our doctor visits and trips to the pharmacy. 
     And it still costs as much or more than it did using two cars 
     before the price gouging.
       I am a lot more in tune to what is going on in this country 
     and how we are being treated by our own government. It is 
     really criminal to say the least. We, who have worked our 
     whole life paying into our system and serving our country in 
     loyalty, and with our lives, we deserve to be treated with 
     far more respect than we get. Senator, we know that this 
     system is working hard to take our sovereignty from us. We 
     are not stupid people; we see and read beyond what the system 
     wants us to know. Please be one of those who are on the side 
     of people, for our freedom of Constitutional rights.
       Long live the United States of America, where our flag 
     flies with pride, and blood has been shed in her honor.
           Respectfully,
     Andrea.
                                  ____

       Senator Crapo,
       I manage an insurance agency with twenty independent 
     salespeople at Farm Bureau Insurance. I could give you quite 
     a few stories, but the one I am most familiar with is my son 
     that works for us. He is 35 years old and has triplets that 
     are two-and-one-half years old. He also has an eleven-year-
     old and a nine-year-old, so he has a full house. His wife is 
     obviously now a stay-at-home mom, but the energy crunch along 
     with grocery inflation is absolutely devastating. He coaches 
     his Little League baseball traveling team and so between his 
     sales career, baseball, and running kids all over, his gas 
     bill alone is between $600 and $700 per month. With the 
     triplet children, the vehicle has to be a large, used SUV. 
     Couple that with his pick-up, and the gas mileage is not the 
     greatest! The larger vehicles, however, are a necessity. This 
     is just the icing on the cake when you also consider the 
     larger house that they now live in with increased utility 
     costs plus the inflated cost of groceries, especially milk. 
     It is time that we start drilling and looking for an 
     effective domestic energy policy and quit outsourcing on 
     energy to foreign soil. We sincerely hope that Congress does 
     something and soon, and that they develop a long term 
     comprehensive policy to prevent future similar crises.
     Ron.
                                  ____

       To the powers that be:
       I am a handicapped woman existing on my Social Security and 
     let me tell you, it only goes so far. I live outside of town 
     about six miles and granted, that is not a great distance, 
     but it adds up very fast. As you know, Social Security really 
     is not enough to live on, and now I am having to add in 
     outrageously high fuel prices for my furnace and car.
       We live in the greatest nation, the richest nation and 
     still we are dependent on foreign fuel to meet our needs. Why 
     is that? We have the capacity to be so much more independent 
     and yet, the consumer, me, pays out and pays out until there 
     is nothing left. Will I be able to save any money to pay for 
     my burial? No, not at the rate things are going. It is a sad 
     commentary on the government when those who have not have to 
     take care of those that have. . . . sad, indeed.
       It is time for government to be ``of the people'' once 
     again, and not out for their own individual gain.
     Cindy.

                          ____________________