[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          COAL-POWERED ENERGY

  (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, we are in an historic heat wave in this 
country, and I'm not talking about the debate on the debt limit, I'm 
actually talking about the temperature outside. And what's noted is 
that many leaders throughout this country--whether they're local Mayors 
or Governors--are saying, if you're poor, get to a cooling shelter, 
stay inside, stay in the air conditioning.
  Well, we're fortunate in this country to have low-cost power 
generated by coal. In rural Illinois, the average salary is $58,000 a 
year, the average utility bill is $121 a month, which means they pay 
about $1,500 a year for the utility cost. However, in France, they pay 
20 cents per kilowatt hour. Just think what the cost would be here if 
we had to double our electricity rates.
  Talk about a burden on the poor and rural Americans when, instead of 
$1,500 a year, they would have to pay $3,000 a year just to seek relief 
from these hot summers.

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