[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 130 (Friday, August 1, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H7792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              HEATING OIL

  (Mr. HALL of New York asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. HALL of New York. Madam Speaker, sky-high prices for gas and 
heating oil have taken a big bite out of family budgets. Just as we 
enter the home stretch of the summer driving season, these same 
families are bracing for increased prices in home heating oil.
  Families in my district use heating oil to stave off winter cold, and 
too many of them are already shivering. We're not even into the heating 
season yet, and already prices in the Hudson Valley are over $4.60, 70 
percent more than last year.
  We need to throw these families a lifeline and fix the energy crisis 
threatening them.
  To help with the costs, I have cosponsored the HEATR Act to give 
qualifying families a $500 tax credit for their heating costs over 
$1,500.
  To fix the markets, the majority has tried repeatedly to provide 
support for new technologies, increased domestic drilling, and oil 
releases from the SPR. Each time, the President and his allies have 
opposed these measures and are holding our energy solutions hostage to 
their insistence on old, ineffective drilling proposals.
  They need to get out of D.C. and see how these prices are affecting 
working families, figure out how to join us, or soon we will all be out 
in the cold.

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