[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 13 (Thursday, January 22, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S783-S785]
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 well over 1,200, are 
heartbreaking and touching. While energy prices have dropped in recent 
weeks, the concerns expressed remain very relevant. To respect the 
efforts of those who took the opportunity to share their thoughts, I am 
submitting every e-mail sent to me through an address set up 
specifically for this purpose 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:

       Why are we still paying foreign aid to the oil-rich 
     [countries]? First, cut off all foreign aid, then charge them 
     $136 a bushel for the grain we sell them at the present price 
     of $7. One fact is for certain--when the food starts 
     disappearing from our supermarket shelves, the politicians 
     will see just how fed up we the people really are. I predict 
     that this will the year of the lowest voter turn-out in the 
     history of this country, as we have no one to choose from for 
     the office of President. Why anyone would want to lead this 
     country into disaster is beyond me. Our government is far too 
     big and corrupt to be changed by a mere vote. Big oil money 
     under the table, personal agendas and the Golden Fleece 
     retirement plan for politicians rule this country. The 
     average citizen has been led to believe that his or her vote 
     matters when it does not. As a sixty-year-old male who has no 
     vision of retirement, and will surely lose my home due to 
     foreclosure, and who will never see Social Security, I, for 
     one, am fed up with this country and [those who seem not to 
     care] about their voters.
     Gary, Boise.
                                  ____

       The idea of exploring and using our own energy resources is 
     a fantastic idea and should have been done long ago. If we 
     use our own resources, in which we have many (capped oil 
     wells all over Texas, drilling in Alaska, Shale oil (which, 
     by the way, is not as expensive as the oil companies claim; 
     they just do not want to lose the revenue they are getting 
     from the failing and antiquated system they are now using, a 
     better Idea would be to reinstitute government control over 
     energy and utility sectors.) I, for one, would feel a great 
     deal better by keeping American dollars at home instead of 
     paying billions to the oil-rich sheiks of the Mideast (in 
     which I have no doubt what so ever that some of those funds 
     end up in terrorists hands.) It is far past the time for 
     American and Americans to take control of our economic and 
     energy future. We have the reserves and resources to do this. 
     The big oil companies have made billions in profit the past 
     couple of years and yet we have not seen nor have we heard 
     anything about refitting the system so the devastation that 
     happened with Katrina does not happen again. Our economy is 
     driven by fuel. Fuel prices go up and the manufacturer pass 
     that cost to the consumer, the consumer is then left with the 
     burden of paying $3.50 for a gallon of milk, $2 for a dozen 
     eggs. It was not too long ago that a gallon of gas was $1.20. 
     Regrettably we will never see that price again. It seems that 
     gas prices do go down but never lower that what it was a year 
     ago.
       The big oil companies are making billions while we sit by 
     and ``watch'' our economy crumble. If measures are not taken 
     to stop this, and I mean measures in the very very very near 
     future (not five years down the road as Sen. McCain is 
     suggesting) I fear that we will find ourselves in the midst 
     of another great depression. Mark my words, sir, the writing 
     is on the wall, but this time we , and by we, I mean the 
     American people, the Senate, and Congress can do something 
     about it. We can start using our resources and support our 
     economy rather than stuffing the linings of those that 
     already have more money that God. When and where does it 
     stop. Foreign countries already own more of America the 
     America does. We are about to have a rude awakening and it 
     will not be a pretty one if steps are not taken to prevent a 
     hostile takeover of American commerce by foreign companies. 
     All driven by the ridiculous and unnecessarily high price of 
     fuel. I believe that it is only 14 percent of all imported 
     fuel is turned into gas and heating oil. If that is true, why 
     is not the cost of plastics and other petroleum-based 
     products not skyrocketing at all? Natural gas is plentiful 
     yet the energy companies say it costs too much to transport 
     it. Solar power is abundant and never-ending, and the 
     technology is fairly inexpensive, yet people do not use it. 
     Idaho has great expanses to set up solar and wind farms. A 
     nuclear energy company is willing to build a plant in Elmore 
     or Owyhee County (I cannot remember which). The nuclear power 
     plant would supply as much as 75 percent of the states, mind 
     you, the state, not a couple of counties but the entire State 
     of Idaho, power needs. Yet no one wants it because of all the 
     disinformation and propaganda. The French had found a way to 
     recycle the spent fuel rods years ago; yet, we still bury 
     ours. The technology is out there and available. We just need 
     to get the big oil companies hands out of the cookie jar so 
     to speak.
       I am sorry if it sounds like I am rambling on. I am just a 
     frustrated citizen who is tired of getting the run around 
     from the government as well as big business. Then time for 
     talk has been over for a long time. Now is the time for 
     action.
       Thank you and God bless,
     Jose.
                                  ____

       I work out of my home/office and not as directly impacted 
     as 99 percent of the folks in America who commute, but our 
     food prices are going up due to the ethanol failed policies 
     as it do not make sense to appease mid-west farmers when more 
     efficient Idaho sugar is better (less votes though for 
     liberals). Here is a good summary from Center for individual 
     freedom: (Please be a Fighter.)
       When it comes to the price Americans are paying for 
     gasoline at the pump, will conservative in Congress fight 
     tooth and nail to increase domestic production or will they 
     allow liberals to choke off your supply of oil and increase 
     gas prices even higher?

[[Page S784]]

       That is the question that hangs like a storm cloud over 
     each of us . . . over our children . . . and over our 
     grandchildren. Some in Congress have already tried repeatedly 
     to increase the price we pay at the pump, even as the price 
     of a gallon of gasoline rose to more than $4.00!
       As you know, Harry Reid and others in the Senate tried to 
     sneak the Boxer Climate Bill past the American people. That 
     legislation, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch 
     McConnell would have raised the price at the pump as much as 
     $1.40 a gallon--that is on top of the more than $4 you are 
     already paying!
       When the Boxer Climate bill failed, liberals tried again 
     last Tuesday to ram through additional taxes on gasoline. On 
     Thursday, Representative John Peterson proposed a measure 
     that would have lifted the ban on oil exploration in areas 
     between 50 to 200 miles off the United Sates coast, a 
     restriction that had been in place since 1981! On a straight 
     party-line vote, Democrats on the House Appropriations 
     Subcommittee killed the measure dead!
       Then, on Saturday, Senator Barack Obama joined with other 
     Democrats and called for a ``windfall profits tax'' on 
     gasoline--a tax for which consumers will undoubtedly end up 
     footing the bill!
       And make no mistake--some in Congress, bowing to the 
     radical environmental groups that openly support higher gas 
     prices will not quit! They will not stop until they have 
     raised the price of gasoline even more!
       But what about conservatives? And what about the American 
     people for that matter? As prices continue to rise at the 
     pump, will they cave to the opposition that is simply using 
     this situation as an excuse to tax us even more? Or will they 
     finally fight?
                                                            Bruce.
       I live in rural eastern Idaho. I work a fulltime job to 
     which I commute and I also operate a small cattle ranch. The 
     energy crisis is greatly reducing my expendable income as 
     travel costs have more than doubled and is putting me out of 
     the agricultural business.
       The oil prices have increased my operating costs in several 
     aspects. The cost of fertilizer has tripled since last year, 
     so this year I could not afford to put fertilizer on my 
     pasture. The cost of electricity is up 50 percent due to the 
     loss of the BPA credits and increased power generation costs 
     and the cost of gasoline for the trucks and tractors has more 
     than doubled.
       Then to make things worse, the nation's efforts to turn 
     corn into fuel have resulted in a reduction in the amount of 
     hay being grown with the result being that the cost of hay to 
     feed my cattle through the winter has more than doubled in 
     the last year to over $200 dollars a ton.
       With the cost of feed up, the cost of cattle has dropped. 
     When all this is added up, there is no profit in my 
     operation. I am at the point where I have to decide if I can 
     subsidize my operation from my salary in hopes that things 
     will even out or I will be forced out of business entirely. I 
     have been in the livestock business for over 30 years, 
     producing food for this nation, and this is the first time I 
     have been faced with going completely out of business.
       I saw this crisis coming several years ago and I wonder why 
     my government did not. This country has let the environmental 
     extremists and political expediency push us into the current 
     situation. We have not built a nuclear reactor for decades. 
     We have not built enough refineries, we have not developed 
     our oil and coal deposits. Now we are in a crisis that will 
     continue to get worse because it will take a decade or more 
     to develop the resources and build the infrastructure if we 
     started today. Projects of this magnitude take forward 
     planning and anticipation, they aren't done over night.
       We cannot survive a decade unless something is done 
     quickly, because the costs will continue to go up and bring 
     the economy to a standstill!
       The menial efforts at alternative sources of energy are 
     doing very little and are not the solution. Ethanol is 
     reducing our food production, driving food costs up and still 
     has to be subsidized to make it worth doing. Wind power is 
     noble in the view of some, but will not make a large enough 
     difference to reduce the cost of power.
       The oil companies, U.S. and foreign, fertilizer companies 
     and ethanol producers are posting record profits as they rape 
     the income of U.S. citizens. CEOs across the nation are 
     receiving record income, while the average people are lining 
     up at soup kitchens just to stay alive. What is wrong with 
     that picture?
       The spineless Congress needs to take on the 
     environmentalists, get past the global warming scare and 
     start drilling off shore and in ANWAR instead of worrying 
     about future elections. An aggressive effort also needs to be 
     taken to build nuclear reactors and coal fired plants with 
     clean coal technologies. The technology exists to develop 
     these resources without significant environmental impact. 
     Doing so would help us take control of our destiny instead of 
     being held hostage forever.
       Science knows that the volcanic eruptions across the planet 
     are spewing much more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere 
     than is being produced by people. I am also amazed that 
     legislators are actually listening to studies about cattle 
     belching.
       I am just one small operator in the agricultural world, but 
     the economics are the same for the large operators. No one 
     will miss me when I go out of business this year, but a flood 
     starts with a few drops of rain, and the flood is coming if 
     something is not done soon! If this nation does not act soon, 
     the U.S. will be at the mercy of other countries for food 
     just as we are for oil and life as we know it will never be 
     the same.
       It is time that Congress gets off their posteriors and 
     shows some leadership! Take definitive action and do it now, 
     while we have a chance to salvage this situation!
       Congress apparently has no effective influence over the 
     ever increasing cost of oil or gasoline at the pump. As a 
     Senior Companion, I am compelled to drive as far as necessary 
     to visit the elderly clients. The Public Health Service 
     attempts to reimburse us for fuel mileage driven at a 
     reasonable rate to compensate us for the fuel used. We 
     understand that the reimbursement rate is going to have to be 
     reduced because of budgetary constraints. Well, if it is as 
     impossible as it appears to be to control fuel costs, perhaps 
     it would be possible to find the funds to increase the 
     mileage rate to compensate those of us who have to provide 
     service to our clients despite high fuel prices.
                                                           George.
       As the wife of a farmer, the economy is strong in the sense 
     of commodity prices, but yet they are at their weakest when 
     it comes to our fuel prices. Several of our neighbors have 
     had to sell their semis that they used to use to haul grain 
     for themselves and others in the community, just to pay their 
     fuel bills for those trucks. With the price of fuel as well, 
     my husband is not able to take as much income off from the 
     farm, because there is not much left. There are 3 families 
     that depend upon the farm to support them.
       On the home front, I have had to make the choice for a 
     while now, whether to buy groceries, or put gas in our 
     vehicles. I drive a minivan that averages 23-25 miles to the 
     gallon. At the current cost of gas right now, it costs me on 
     average $90 to fill it up. That is one week's worth of 
     groceries at our house. There are four of us in the home, 2 
     adults and 2 children with another due in November. We have a 
     limited income right now, because of the weather our growing 
     season has been affected. So for the last few months, we have 
     lived off of about $1800 a month. We do not drive the newest 
     vehicles, our newest vehicle is my 1998 minivan that we 
     purchased in 2007 after our other vehicle was totaled in a 
     car accident. My husband has his 1995 farm truck which is 
     gas, and the family truck which is diesel. We are only paying 
     on one of these vehicles. Sad to say, but the 1995 diesel 
     truck is the one we are paying on, even though with the price 
     of diesel, it sits in the driveway, unless we have to haul 
     hay or cattle. We have our mortgage payment which is not 
     outrageous, $646 a month. With me expecting, my doctor's 
     appointments are over an hour away, about 100 miles plus 
     roundtrip once a month for right now. I am also the parts 
     pickup person for our farming operation. In the last week, I 
     have made 3 trips out of town for parts to different stores, 
     because not all of them carried the same parts. My brother 
     has been in and out of the hospital for cancer treatments to 
     get rid of a tumor that is otherwise inoperable. I have had 
     to help my mother out with his care as well, as he needs 
     someone with him 24/7. Living in a rural community as I do, 
     our grocery prices have been affected by fuel costs as well. 
     I pay $4 a gallon for milk, where elsewhere it is about 
     $3.00. Bread is about $3.00 a loaf, whereas elsewhere I have 
     purchased the same bread for $1.59 a loaf. Cheese is 
     currently a want and not a need at our house, with a 2 pound 
     loaf of cheese costing $10 where a year ago, it was $6.99. 
     Those are our main staples in our home, especially the milk 
     with two young kids at home ages 4 and 5. We could apply for 
     WIC, but then someone else has to foot the bill to feed our 
     family, and I was not raised that way. There is no money 
     leftover at the end of the month for savings for just in case 
     circumstances, which is very unsettling for me and my 
     husband.
       The best thing that Congress can do is to allow more 
     options for drilling in the U.S., and quit depending on the 
     foreign oil. There are numerous opportunities in the United 
     States, which would create jobs, instead of sending them 
     across the border to Mexico, as well as force the price of 
     oil down. The other thing too, is if Congress would put the 
     control of prices back into the oil companies' hands, I feel 
     they would do a much better job at forcing the prices lower. 
     Our country is rich in abundance of oil, if Congress would 
     allow it. Why do you think that in Saudi Arabia, and Iraq 
     fuel prices have not affected their country! They have an 
     over abundance of oil. We have more than them, but yet we 
     aren't allowed to utilize it because of such ridiculous 
     restrictions Congress has imposed on companies. Which is 
     fueled by environmentalists who are still using more 
     energy than the average American family (Al Gore and his 
     followers). We would not be destroying anything by 
     drilling in these locations, obviously if we weren't meant 
     to have the oil that is there, the good Lord would not 
     have put it there for our responsible use!
                                                     Tansy, Malad.
       Because of the huge rise in gas prices it now costs me $90 
     to fill up my gas tank not to mention my husband's van. We 
     now have no money for emergencies or any extras because of 
     the huge increase in the price of gas. It has hurt our income 
     a lot more than we had anticipated. I would suggest having 
     incentives for gas preservation and I appreciate everything 
     you plan on doing to help keep the cost of gas prices down. 
     You have my vote this year because you really care

[[Page S785]]

     What happens to the people of Idaho including finding ways to 
     keep gas prices from continuing to rise.
       Keep up the good work, Senator.
     Carla.
                                  ____

       I appreciate you asking for thoughts on energy. I believe 
     we need to embrace and pursue alternatives to oil. Honda 
     today unveiled a hydrogen powered car. What does Detroit 
     offer? Something that really galls me is that the U.S. gives 
     billions to countries that hate us, why? I am not a fan of 
     welfare, but every dollar going to the poor in this country 
     is spent here, how much of the money given to foreign 
     countries is spent here? I know it is not that simple. I 
     appreciate your efforts for Idaho and the U.S.
     Jack, Boise.

                          ____________________