[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 18 (Thursday, January 29, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1053-S1055]
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:

       I am a single, 55-year-old female. I commute Monday through 
     Friday to Boise for work. Currently it costs me approximately 
     one week's pay check (take home pay) per month, just to put 
     gas in the car to make the commute. Needless, to say, by the 
     time rent, utilities, and gas are paid, this leaves very 
     little for anything else--including groceries. Weekends? 
     Unless it is one trip to the grocery store, the car and I sit 
     at home out of necessity, not by choice. Now that summer is 
     here, I do not even have the option of walking to places in 
     downtown Caldwell, as I cannot manage the heat. I guess I 
     have officially become one of the working poor.
     Cyndi, Caldwell.
                                  ____

       Hi Mike, I had sent you two times about what is going on 
     with coal to liquid and I receive no reply; what gives?
       As long as we do not have the technology for hydrogen fuel 
     cars and batteries are not good enough yet, we are still 
     dependant on fossil fuels. Do something constructive and 
     start pushing for coal to liquid. This is the only way, at 
     this time to solve our energy crisis, as I mentioned before, 
     the process is almost identical to cracking oil, clean diesel 
     and all the other chemicals, except for gasoline.
       I want an answer from you about this subject and no generic 
     answer.

     Ed, Sandpoint.
                                  ____


       Thank you for asking us Idahoans on how the gas prices are 
     affecting our lives. I was unable to do a vacation trip to 
     the coast, due to the high prices of gas. Instead of costing 
     $25 to fill my tank; it now takes about $75 to fill it up. I 
     now fill up every time it goes to a half of a tank. I have to 
     decide if I am going to put gas in my car or groceries that I 
     need. I do not do much now, just go back and forth to work 
     and pretty much nothing else. I cannot believe how things 
     have gotten out of hand. Everything has gone up within the 
     last 6 months. I have a home and do not want to risk losing 
     [it]. I have been at my job for the past 8 years and have not 
     gotten any type of raise in the last 4 years. My father is on 
     a limited income, and he cannot afford to put gas in his 
     vehicle, he just barely makes ends meet now. I take him to 
     the grocery store and take him on his errands, when he needs 
     to go somewhere. Thank you for taking the time to ask us how 
     we are doing here in Idaho.
     Patricia, Meridian.
                                  ____

       I find it empowering that you are involving the people that 
     are so affected by the recent hikes in energy costs, in this 
     case, the price of fuel. I know that I share the pain of 
     trying to keep up with every American that has to depend on 
     gas and diesel to make it to work to survive and, due to 
     inevitable geography, visit loved ones throughout the U.S. I 
     must drive a full-sized truck and trailer to make a living 
     and filling it up yesterday was $124.40. That will last four 
     or five days depending on mileage. My wife commutes from 
     Caldwell to Payette, and even with a new Subaru that gets 
     good mileage, has to fill up every five days as well at a new 
     high price of $650. This is very difficult. Progressing with 
     a plan to save a little money, perhaps work on a much-needed 
     retirement someday has taken a back burner to simply making 
     it to work. Conservatively, we spend around $560 a month in 
     fuel prices. We do indeed need to find a solution, perhaps in 
     house drilling . . . I am not sure.
       With further concern, both of our fathers are 71 and 74 
     years old and in failing health. Both lives have been full 
     and, as we all know, the inevitable is upon us. Rising fuel 
     prices make it that much more difficult to see them. This is 
     a long list of complaints which I do not like to do, but this 
     is the voice of a country in desperate need. Thank you for 
     this opportunity, may we work together.
     Howard.
                                  ____

       I want to get the attention of Congress. You people need to 
     listen to these letters from Senator Crapo. Who are you 
     representing? I do not believe the Constitution has ``We, the 
     special interest groups'' in it. We, ``The People'' want to 
     drill for oil on our own soil, use hydroelectric power, solar 
     power, wind power, nuclear power, any power that is available 
     to us in this country.
       We the people are hurting. Do not you guys get it? We are 
     the United States of America! We can accomplish anything. We 
     the people are powerful, resourceful, proud of this land we 
     call America! Remove the road blocks so this innovation can 
     happen.
       I am not the only frustrated citizen out there. Congress is 
     supposed to represent the people of this nation. [But it 
     seems that they are so disconnected, it is scary. I think 
     Congress should get the same Social Security plan and 
     insurance plan (or lack thereof) we get. Then things might 
     change. You just do not realize how much this rise in gas and 
     food prices are hurting Americans. I wish we the people could 
     vote on this issue. I think you would see a different 
     outcome. We would immediately be drilling for oil on our own 
     soil and finding innovative ways to create our own power. We 
     need to remove the handcuffs that government has put on 
     companies so this innovation could begin. America has always 
     been independent. What happened?
       Even if the roadblocks were removed today, it is going to 
     take time to get these

[[Page S1054]]

     new energy systems up and running. Why are not we starting? 
     Is it going to take people starving to death here in America 
     to get congress's attention? People are having to choose 
     between buying gas and buying food? Here in America?
       Why are we depending upon getting oil from countries that 
     hate us? That is just not an intelligent strategy.
     Debbie.
                                  ____

       Thank you for reaching out to gain the opinions of the 
     people. Charles Krauthammer states his opinion beautifully in 
     the editorial below. The only points I would add is that the 
     world has only so much oil. If the U.S. begins drilling 
     offshore, it will give Americans a continued false sense of 
     confidence and for how long . . . 30 years . . . maybe. 
     Together Americans need to come together and develop 
     technology that is not oil based. We can do it now or we can 
     leave it for our children. There are other ways to help 
     relieve families of the financial difficulties the high cost 
     of oil is creating. I encourage you to focus on them.
     Marion, Boise.
                                  ____


                     At $4, Everybody Gets Rational

                        (By Charles Krauthammer)

                          Friday, June 6, 2008

       So now we know: The price point is $4.
       At $3 a gallon, Americans just grin and bear it, suck it up 
     and, while complaining profusely, keep driving like crazy. At 
     $4, it is a world transformed. Americans become rational 
     creatures. Mass transit ridership is at a 50-year high. 
     Driving is down 4 percent. (Any U.S. decline is something 
     close to a miracle.) Hybrids and compacts are flying off the 
     lots. SUV sales are in free fall.
       The wholesale flight from gas guzzlers is stunning in its 
     swiftness, but utterly predictable. Everything has a price 
     point. Remember that ``love affair'' with SUVs? Love, it 
     seems, has its price too.
       America's sudden change in car-buying habits makes suitable 
     mockery of that absurd debate Congress put on last December 
     on fuel efficiency standards. At stake was precisely what 
     miles-per-gallon average would every car company's fleet have 
     to meet by precisely what date.
       It was one out-of-a-hat number (35 mpg) compounded by 
     another (by 2020). It involved, as always, dozens of 
     regulations, loopholes and throws at a dartboard. And we 
     already knew from past history what the fleet average number 
     does. When oil is cheap and everybody wants a gas guzzler, 
     fuel efficiency standards force manufacturers to make cars 
     that nobody wants to buy. When gas prices go through the 
     roof, this agent of inefficiency becomes an utter redundancy.
       At $4 a gallon, the fleet composition is changing 
     spontaneously and overnight, not over the 13 years mandated 
     by Congress. (Even Stalin had the modesty to restrict himself 
     to five-year plans.) Just Tuesday, GM announced that it would 
     shutter four SUV and truck plants, add a third shift to its 
     compact and midsize sedan plants in Ohio and Michigan, and 
     green-light for 2010 the Chevy Volt, an electric hybrid.
       Some things, like renal physiology, are difficult. Some 
     things, like Arab-Israeli peace, are impossible. And some 
     things are preternaturally simple. You want more fuel-
     efficient cars? Do not regulate. Do not mandate. Do not 
     scold. Do not appeal to the better angels of our nature. Do 
     one thing: Hike the cost of gas until you find the price 
     point. Unfortunately, instead of hiking the price ourselves 
     by means of a gasoline tax that could be instantly refunded 
     to the American people in the form of lower payroll taxes, we 
     let the Saudis, Venezuelans, Russians and Iranians do the 
     taxing for us--and pocket the money that the tax would have 
     recycled back to the American worker.
       This is insanity. For 25 years and with utter futility 
     (starting with ``The Oil-Bust Panic,'' the New Republic, 
     February 1983), I have been advocating the cure: a U.S. 
     energy tax as a way to curtail consumption and keep the money 
     at home. On this page in May 2004 (and again in November 
     2005), I called for ``the government--through a tax--to 
     establish a new floor for gasoline,'' by fully taxing any 
     drop in price below a certain benchmark. The point was to 
     suppress demand and to keep the savings (from any subsequent 
     world price drop) at home in the U.S. Treasury rather than 
     going abroad. At the time, oil was $41 a barrel. It is now 
     $123.
       But instead of doing the obvious--tax the damn thing--we go 
     through spasms of destructive alternatives, such as 
     efficiency standards, ethanol mandates and now a crazy carbon 
     cap-and-trade system the Senate is debating this week. These 
     are infinitely complex mandates for inefficiency and 
     invitations to corruption. But they have a singular virtue: 
     They hide the cost to the American consumer.
       Want to wean us off oil? Be open and honest. The British 
     are paying $8 a gallon for petrol. Goldman Sachs is 
     predicting we will be paying $6 by next year. Why have the 
     extra $2 (above the current $4) go abroad? Have it go to the 
     U.S. Treasury as a gasoline tax and be recycled back into 
     lower payroll taxes.
       Announce a schedule of gas tax hikes of 50 cents every six 
     months for the next two years. And put a tax floor under $4 
     gasoline, so that as high gas prices transform the U.S. auto 
     fleet, change driving habits and thus hugely reduce U.S. 
     demand--and bring down world crude oil prices--the American 
     consumer and the American economy reap all of the benefit.
       Herewith concludes my annual exercise in futility. By the 
     time I write next year's edition, you'll be paying for gas in 
     bullion.
                                  ____

       I am writing in response to your request for stories about 
     energy prices. I was surprised to see that the average family 
     spends $200 a month on gasoline. Our family is spending $700 
     a month on gasoline, not including vacations. In a relatively 
     rural area such as Middleton, we travel 15-20 miles for work, 
     church and shopping, and 5-10 miles to schools and any other 
     activities in which our children are involved. Of these 
     five--work, church, shopping, school, and activities, we 
     could cut down on the activities our children are involved in 
     (and we have), but the other four are not an option.
       Add to this the fact that our property taxes in Middleton 
     were raised by a third, which we are starting to pay for this 
     month, and it makes our budget extremely tight. So tight, in 
     fact, that we have put our home up for sale, and I will be 
     adding substitute teaching onto my busy schedule as a mother 
     of six to be able to make ends meet; well, I should say some 
     of the ends--many needs will still remain unfilled because 
     our budget will be so tight.
       My suggestions for Congress: 1) Drill for more oil in our 
     own country, being as environmentally friendly as you can; 2) 
     Use much more nuclear power; 3) Find out who is suppressing 
     the technologies that will allow us to move away from 
     dependence on gasoline in our cars.
       Thank you for inviting us to share our stories and 
     suggestions.
     Lorena, Middleton.
                                  ____

       I am writing [because] you want to know what is going on in 
     the real world. Well, I am here to tell you that it is not 
     easy to do. I am a single mom [who] is raising a teenage son. 
     I am fighting cancer with no insurance because it is too 
     expensive. So it is now down to do I pay the medical bills 
     and keep fighting the cancer or do I put gas in my car to go 
     back and forth to work? Do I put gas in the car or do I put 
     food on the table for me and my son? We are in a war with 
     Iraq but yet we are still importing oil from that country and 
     supporting them after they bombed our country. Where is the 
     smarts in that? We have oil wells here in the U.S. that are 
     capped off and not being used when we could support our 
     country put our own people back to work. We have fuel in 
     reserve for war time, [but we are in war time]. [We should] 
     open the reserves and show them we do not need their oil and 
     the prices would come down per barrel. They say the reason 
     that the cost per barrel is so high is because of the danger 
     of getting the oil out well that is because we are in a war 
     with them.
       Thanks for listening.
     Tracy.
                                  ____

       Every issue needs balance. I ask you to take this letter 
     with all the other to the Hill to give balance to your 
     argument to off-shore oil drilling.
       Two years ago our family made some changes. We traded in 
     our 10 miles to the gallon SUV and purchased a vehicle that 
     would get 21 mpg. We tuned up our bicycles and ride them at 
     every opportunity, and we walk to places we would have driven 
     years ago. We also use conservation methods and turn off 
     lights, recycle, and encourage everyone we meet to do the 
     same.
       Mr. Crapo, this is the answer to your call to off-shore 
     drilling. It is conservation, not more oil. It is reducing 
     the size of trucks and cars and homes. It is limiting the use 
     of recreational vehicles that waste millions of gallons 
     daily. It is a new consciousness that we must ultimately 
     learn to live with to survive with our earth and the changing 
     dynamics of our energy use.
       The call for MORE is only a stop gap. It does little to 
     solve the problem and does everything to get you through one 
     more election. Remember, you are riding on the coattails of 
     the most unpopular President in our history. That alone 
     should cause you concern.
       I would be surprised if this letter makes the stack that is 
     presented to the Senate. It does little to support your 
     argument but does express the issue the mood of one of many 
     of the voters in your home state.
       Thank you

     Kirk, Boise.
                                  ____


       It is time we stopped building homes no one will buy and 
     started building nuclear power plants, putting up windmills, 
     and using this land these developers have gobbled up to grow 
     corn to feed our families. Building more houses (as in Boise 
     when 9,000 homes are up for sale due to a loss of jobs) is 
     nonproductive in this housing market. This would also put 
     people to work and possibly help with the illegal problem we 
     have in Nampa. These people come here to build houses and do 
     landscaping.
       When I used to fill my truck for $56 and it would last a 
     month, now it is $82. I live on Social Security Disability. 
     Cutting food, I have already done. Cutting utility costs, I 
     did this month. I cannot cut my meds or my insurance, but I 
     do not go see my Dr. as often as I should.
     Barbara, Boise.
                                  ____

       I really appreciate your willingness to step up and getting 
     the information from the people about problems in our 
     economy. This is my story--myself and my family, which 
     includes four children ages from 12 to 5 years, and my wife. 
     We just bought a house that

[[Page S1055]]

     made our life a lot easier about 1 year and a half ago. This 
     house is a lot bigger than the one we had. I needed a house 
     that could fit all of us. So I went from a 1,146 square foot 
     home to a 2,000 square foot home, a lot better. But ever 
     since the prices of gas started going up, it has put us in a 
     bind. Right now I am now about 2 months behind on my mortgage 
     and really do not have any way of making it up. So we have 
     the house on the market for a short sale. Since the gas 
     prices are rising, people are not shopping like they used to, 
     so my wife's work is affected hence her hours are cut. I work 
     all the way in Boise and live in Nampa. I have been at my job 
     for 9 years now, and it seems like I am just working to get 
     back and forth.
       I really think that we should start drilling other places 
     now. The economy is going or is already taking a big hit on 
     everything. Since the price of gas basically controls the 
     price of everything like food and since I have four kids, my 
     grocery bill has [gone] up, also. Another option maybe is to 
     have the oil companies cut the Americans a stimulus check at 
     the end of every fiscal year. They are making a huge profit. 
     That tells me that the price can go down a lot and they can 
     still make a little money. Instead they want to help hurt the 
     economy. In my eyes, they are no better than terrorists.
       Thanks for taking the time to read my email and hopefully 
     since we the people actually put you guys into these 
     positions to help the economy and keep our country, state, 
     city safe and running like a well-oiled machine, I really 
     hope that something can come of this. I really believe that 
     if gas prices run around $2.50 a gallon they can still make a 
     profit and keep things going in our country with no problem.
     Jason.

                          ____________________