Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - June 26, 2008)
---
Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, earlier this week, 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 energy There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: HELLO SENATOR Crapo: The impact of the high gas and energy prices is affecting my wife and I quite a bit. My wife is disabled with severe arthritis, Crohn's Disease, and vision problems from glaucoma, and I am the only income provider for our household. I earn just enough to cancel out my wife's SSI, so we have to cover all her medical expenses that the insurance I receive from work does not cover; that is $250.00 to $300.00 plus. I am an employee of Kootenai County, so due to budget restraints and laws, I do not see much in the line of raises to offset cost of living expenses. My job requires that I have transportation available, and that cuts carpooling and riding a bus. I drive 30 miles round trip for work, with a 1988 Mazda pickup that has 190,000 miles on it. If there is a good tail wind, I may get 18 mpg. Due to medical expenses and price increases for food, heating, etc., I cannot afford to purchase a newer vehicle that gets better gas mileage. With costs for gas, energy and products affected by the increases, it takes away from an already tight budget, and we have no choice but to cut back where we can. Some people say get another job, but a lot of my off time is used to assist my wife around the house, and take her for errands and medical appointments. At this point, I am concerned about what I will do when the pickup gets to the point of needing high-dollar repair work. We also live in a mobile home that uses electric heat. Sometimes my wife gets depressed that she cannot contribute financially to our household, which does not help her condition. The two things that would help our situation would be that my income does not count against my wife's SSI, which would be a tremendous help to the budget for medical bills and possibly a better vehicle, and, of course, the lower prices for fuel and energy. Thanks for your assistance; it is greatly appreciated. -- Due to increased gas prices (and some unexpected medical bills), we are now a one car family. I primarily bike to work (it is only two miles away) and I have taught my son to ride the bus. He attends TVMSC at Riverglen, and we live on the East side of town (one-half hour away), so that has helped as well. My husband works out in Meridian, and he occasionally uses public transportation, but has found that the inter-county routes are underfunded and unreliable. Twice the bus has not shown up at all (due to repairs), and it can only handle two bikes, so if the bus bike rack is full, you are out of luck. I believe reducing our reliance on foreign oil is important; it will require advancement in green energy as well as personal changes. However, before the public will use alternative transportation, it has to be reliable and that requires money. Boise does a great job maintaining the green belt and I have noticed on the BSU campus, the bike racks are always full. This was not the case a year ago. This is a positive change. Now if we could work on public transportation and advancing technology to create more fuel efficient cars that are affordable. I also believe tax credits (many of which already exist) to encourage people to weatherproof (insulate/buy better windows) their homes or that encourage them to purchase energy efficient appliances would help. Overall, I hope we reduce the amount of oil we use, not just increase oil production. I think this will help in the long run. Thank you, -- Thank you for trying to stop the insanity. The high gas prices have made it difficult for me to take the 20 some mile drive to Parma from Caldwell to visit my 95-year-old grandmother. Normally I go once a week. I've had to miss a week now and then because I didn't have enough money for gas. I've cut corners elsewhere to do my best to get those visits in since I know we are living on borrowed time. She's had several strokes lately, and we do not know how long she'll be with us. It cost $97.00 to fill my vehicle a few days ago. With my 6-year-old in baseball and my teenager in baseball, that takes a lot of gas to travel to games. I missed my teenager's games at tournament because I could not afford to drive to North Idaho and stay in a hotel. His first tournament ever--that was really hard. I am convinced that the gas prices are affecting our grocery prices, too. My husband works in construction. The economy has slowed so much that his company is having a hard time finding work. This is a very established, well-known company. Because our income has gone down and gas and food have gone up, I'm trying to feed a family of 5 on less than $100.00 a month. The only way I've managed to do this is because we are all hunters and have lots of meat and fish in the freezer from last year. I'm tired of hearing how much the oil companies make!!! It is wrong to make such a huge profit off of something we really have to have in order to work and function!! If you live in a city, you can get by using the bus system or subway. I live 5 miles from the grocery store, and there is no bus system to ride. I cannot walk or ride my bike to get groceries. My husband works 100 miles from home. He comes home on weekends. The type of work he does wouldn't benefit from public transportation either. Something has to be done about these prices. Sincerely, -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my story of how this price of gas is touching my life. First, I want to share my story as a consumer and also as a health care administrator. I run a good-sized nursing home in a small rural Idaho community. I was recruited to run this facility from a good distance away. I travel 130 miles a day round trip on my daily commute. I love my job and the employees I manage love me but as you can imagine 130 miles a day is a lot of gas even with a very fuel efficient vehicle, which I have. Between my wife (who is a stay-at-home mother of five children) and I, we are now spending close to $500.00 a month on gas alone. I have a good salary but even with that, we are looking at ways to save on all we spend money on. The problem is the higher gas prices make everything else increase in price. There is no way around this as it is causing us to change our life style. It feels unfair that I worked so hard to be able to have my wife stay home, but now if the price does not go down soon, she may be forced to work just so we can survive. People would consider me well in the middle class, but we are not living that life style today. Everything is going up in price, but my salary is not and I am a lucky one. I am grateful for what I have, and I am a proud American and Idahoan. I am not complaining, but I really believe more can be done because many more than me are suffering much worse. As an Administrator of a Healthcare Facility in a small town, the energy crisis is huge. Our costs are have doubled in many cases, but our reimbursement has not. All of my employees need a raise to combat the increase in cost of living, but this is just not feasible. Many of the employees are very low income, and I really do not see how they make it. I have many who have told me they have just stopped driving because they just cannot afford it. My heart goes out to them, and I do whatever I can to help but the neat thing is they do not blame me. They know I care, and I pay them the best I can. These are great people who care for people who cannot care for themselves. They have one of the most thankless jobs in the world, but they are true heroes in my eyes. These are the people I want you to fight for and beat this crisis. They are a true example of why this country is great. Thank you for fighting for Idaho and all America. Sincerely, -- I am an employee of Idaho State University and I live in Blackfoot, 20 miles north of Pocatello. I am averaging $400.00 a month in just gasoline expenses and I do not drive on the weekends unless absolutely necessary. I started this position as a 1 year temporary to hold the job open for an employee who had been offered a 1 year contract as an instructor. I was allowed to work 10 hour days and have a 3 day weekend to help with gasoline consumption but within 2 months of being awarded the position full time I was told I had to work 5 days a week at the office even though the Health Occupations chair offered me an opportunity to fill some Fridays at the Outreach in Blackfoot proctoring tests for students in my programs. To add insult to injury our political representatives that decide pay raises for state employees gave us a 1% raise which for most classified employees amounts to between ten and fifteen cents an hour and my medical benefits, which only cover my husband and myself, went up around 34.35%. Because of this I am forced to seek employment closer to home at a significantly lower wage just to continue to go into debt. Being unable to keep up with the higher energy costs not associated with travel such as for cooking, heating and cooling a house as well as the maintenance for the residence. I know I am speaking for many low to middle income families when I implore the political representatives of the citizens of this state to help find a solution. This is such a rural state that public transportation is not justifiable and impractical. Please help. -- SENATOR CRAPO: While I can fully appreciate your efforts in trying to keep energy prices down, it is a bit late as the damage has already been done. I have run a small business in Idaho for 25 years. Currently I have 8 employees and I live in constant fear that I will be put out of business. Why? Because EVERY YEAR, we have yet another out-of-control economic crisis in this country. Now we have 4+ dollar per gallon gasoline. As you know, Idaho has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the U.S. (ranked 41st), yet the cost of living has skyrocketed in the metropolitan areas over the last 10 years. Because of this, and also from increased pressure from the Internet and chain stores, I have had to downsize my operation from a high of 35 employees to what I have now. With the additional increased pressures now in place due to gasoline prices, I expect our sales to decline even further. To be perfectly honest, I cannot survive yet another business downturn and will simply have to go under, putting myself and 7 other people out on the streets. I talk to many other small business owners who are feeling the pinch as well. If you examine what has happened in this country, we keep talking about 3 major issues but no significant proactive steps have been taken: First, reducing our dependence on foreign oil by increasing domestic production. This has been debated for 30 years but essentially nothing has been done about it. It would have been a relatively simple matter to open up domestic exploration but Congress will have nothing of it because of lobbyists and environmentalists. Second, alternative energy. Again this has been talked about for 3 decades but relatively little has been done. The U.S., which should be at the forefront in this area, has lagged far behind much smaller countries such as Spain, France, and the Netherlands. Third, more fuel efficient transportation. The technology exists TODAY to almost DOUBLE gas mileage in vehicles, but our government can't even get the car manufacturers to comply with federal fuel consumption guidelines which are a pittance. There has not been a significant breakthrough in vehicle gas mileage from the major U.S. carmakers for over 10 years. This is not only inexcusable, it is a major factor in the reason that GM and Ford have fallen on hard times the last several years. In addition to all of this, we have been embroiled in overseas conflicts in both Iraq and Kuwait, two of the most oil-rich countries on earth, but we have not held them accountable in any way for our help. The costs of our aiding just those two countries, by the time we eventually get out of Iraq, will easily exceed one trillion U.S. taxpayer dollars, not to mention ongoing costs associated with taking care of returning veterans. For this obscene amount of money we will receive nothing in return because we have failed to negotiate oil treaties at the outset. We could have better spent this money on energy research and production here at home. There is a time for talking and a time for action. We need action NOW to help solve these issues. Regards, -- I am a single mother of three children. Two are disabled. I live in Wilder Idaho and commute to Nampa. The round trip is about 50 miles. I also have to take my children, especially the two disabled ones, to doctor's appointments quite often. We are now nearly destitute due in part to the cost of commuting. I have been living on credit cards part of the time. I do not know what I'll do about the cost of gas except look into a hydrogen unit for my vehicle. That seems to be the only solution on the horizon as I cannot afford to get another vehicle. Any other ideas? -- MIKE: As American citizens we are sick and tired of Congress doing nothing to remove our dependency on foreign oil. We are no longer able to travel, except in emergencies to visit family. Almost everything we consume has gone up in price, from shipping goods and services to products made from oil. We either need to get current members of Congress out of office or demand you hold a special session to do the following: 1..Remove legislation that limits drilling offshore and in Alaska to help increase supply (Drill Now, Drill Everywhere, Save America). 2..Remove all the red tape with opening and producing more nuclear energy power plants. 3..Continue research on alternative fuels that do not deplete our food supply. 4..Take advantage of wind, solar, and hydro power and provide reasonable tax incentives for use of these energy sources. Please pass this on to all our elected representatives and continue to push Congress to do what we elected them for, putting in place sound legislation that will move this country forward, not backward. We have waited too long, now we must react rather than act. I am counting on you Mike to make this happen, leave a legacy Idaho can be proud of. -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: This is not what you asked for, but I felt obliged to note that the energy price problem will solve itself through economics. As oil gets more expensive, alternative energies become relatively cheap. Thus, economics will drive up the development of those energies. Unfortunately, one of those alternate energies is food. What this means is that as oil gets more expensive, food will get more expensive, because more food will go toward powering cars (e.g. ethanol). To prevent this from happening, I believe that the federal government must assist in the development of nuclear power. There is only one source of energy in the universe, and that is nuclear power. All other forms of energy derive from nuclear power. Wind, solar, biomass, oil all of these previously came or are now coming from a very large nuclear power plant in the sky called the sun. Fortunately, most of the detrimental radiation we receive from that nuclear power plant can be safely avoided with sunscreen. Jokes aside, this is an important fact to publicly recognize. Nuclear power is, in fact, our only source of power. We can either try to capture the nuclear power coming from the sun, or we can make it ourselves here on earth. While both are viable avenues, the former will lead to higher food prices because fields of wheat and corn are essentially huge solar power panels that can be used to propel rich people's jets instead of feeding poor people, and economics will make that happen. I've been told that it takes enough corn to feed a person for a year to fill an SUV gas tank once. Think carefully about what that means. To be feasible and safe, nuclear power will require federal government intervention, but it can be done and will result in a cheap, very long term source of power for the United States. Nuclear power is the cleanest, cheapest long term solution answer to America's power problems. -- MIKE: As financially devastating as gas prices have been to our family budget over the past several years, I can not understand how anyone can determine it is a problem that stands by itself. There are several devastating intimately related issues that if our elected officials insist on continuing their tunnel vision over them, we will never have a meaningful solution. When will it be recognized that burning fossil fuels no matter what their source is or how much it costs to get them to the pump, the Earth is also degrading from their use every day with every gallon we consume. So the real question is, why are we still subsidizing oil production when we need to be gearing up our industrial infrastructure and workers to expand our fuel resources to solar, wind, industrial hemp oil and all the related necessities which would be so constructive, effective and economically advantageous, not to mention how remedial to our environment these most rational efforts would be. What the hell are you waiting for? Why are you so focused on what gas costs? Do you have any idea what it is going to cost to live anything like a human being after all the oil in the word is burned and we need to live in biospheres in order to breathe--and if we go at this your way, we will still need to develop alternative resources when all the oil is gone--if we can still live on the Earth. Wake up! These problems are not just your problem to solve; this problem belongs to us all and would not be too big for all of us to solve collectively--stop trying to commandeer the solutions--start helping us to solve them meaningfully, constructively and effectively. All you have to do is facilitate the people getting together to organize their solutions into rational plans. Selling your power to solve these problems to the highest bidding lobbyist is NOT the right thing for you to do. There is help available when you come around to doing the right thing. I will be able to help a lot. Sincerely, -- Thanks for a chance to respond. We do not go to the gym every day because it is across town. Our air conditioner is set at 78 degrees, and even though we're hot and uncomfortable, we do not want the bill that turning it down will bring. We have doubled up our reunion with vacation, so we only have to ``head out'' as a family once this summer. -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: I am a retired USDA Forest Service employee, my career covered 40 years with assignments in Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, California, New Mexico, and Nevada. I read your newsletter and request for comments regarding the serious effects of run-away energy prices. I do not want to focus on the effects, but would rather emphasize my support for using energy supplies and other natural resources within our own national borders to help reduce the cost and our dependency on Arab oil and other foreign natural resources. My career with the Forest Service included the Arab Embargo on petroleum products in the late seventies. At the time I was working in Wyoming, on the Bridger-Teton National Forest. This Forest includes part of a geologic formation called an ``over-thrust belt''. These are areas where layers of sedimentary deposits that include organic matter have been covered over by other geologic layers, often as the result of shifting of the earth's surface. In this process, organic matter gets trapped underneath the layering. Eventually, it gets changed into hydrocarbons--oil and gas. During the Reagan era the Bridger-Teton National Forest, and other Forests that included over-thrust geology issued hundreds of leases to industry to explore for oil and gas. Many exploratory wells were drilled on the Bridger-Teton Forest, some in very sensitive habitat (one within the view-shed of Jackson, Wyoming). At the time, no fields were developed for commercial use on the Bridger-Teton Forest, but I am aware some deposits were found. With today's prices, it is highly likely some of it would be economic to develop. But, given the current environmental concerns no politician is willing to risk their careers to even suggest environmental constraints be lifted to further explore the potential there or anywhere else within our borders, e.g., ANWR or off shore. A key point I want to make regarding my experience is industry did a very good job of being sensitive to the environment in the exploration I was involved with. In fact, many of the old exploratory well sites are included in areas environmentalists are currently proposing for Wilderness designation by Congress. Of course, they wish to close off any options to further explore and perhaps develop our own resources for their own ideological reasons. But, because of my experience I know it can be done without destroying any significant sensitive ecosystem values, especially with the new technology available with is much better than we had available in the seventies. I appeal to you to approach Senator McCain and encourage him to truly be a ``change'' candidate for President by making a part of his platform energy independence for our nation. And, have part of that program opening up and use of the energy and other natural resources our own nation has to help accomplish that goal and less overall dependency on foreign imports. DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS!! Sincerely, -- Baloney!! You are an oil company sellout like the rest the GOP. American needs to diversify its energy sources, not drill for more petroleum. Even the best estimates of U.S. reserves do not come close to meeting U.S. energy demands. This issue is central to our economy, national security, and the environment and it is the reason why I have abandoned the Republican Party ..... or rather why you have abandoned me. Change, or America and the rest of the world will leave you behind!! -- I do not think our story is unique, but we are both in our 70's and on Social Security. However my husband, who will soon be 73, still must work to get us through every month. We no longer travel any where. Our children and grandchildren are all out of state, and they also find it hard to make ends meet, so they do not travel either. We no longer have the chance to enjoy the much sought after ``retirement'' that we have all come to expect. Some still can, but very many can just keep their head above water. We have cut back on thinking about the usual plans for enjoyment we were looking forward to and are gratefull that we can at least, at the moment, afford our food, utility's, a few bills, and still squeeze out enough gas money for my husband to go 60 or so miles roundtrip to work each day. We know it will get worse, and we're not alone. -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: I can't imagine anyone, anywhere in the USA who is not mightily upset over the exorbitant increase in fuel prices. I know my wife and I, our family of 4 couples and their children totaling 15, have already started making plans to reduce our vacation travel this summer to within a 100-mile radius of our homes in Twin Falls. We will take day trips to the South Hills and take a 4-5 day Labor Day trip. As a family, we have been planning a trip to Disneyland in the fall so that our older grandchildren could enjoy a few days in the park. We were planning on using our refund money, coming from Washington DC, to fund the trip which would have included fuel for the trip, lodging, meals and entrance into the park. I speak for my wife, our adult children and myself when I say that the current energy situation is inexcusable. Being a good Reagan Republican, I wholeheartedly endorse the drilling for more oil in Alaska, allowing additional drilling for oil off both coasts and exploring for additional shale oil in Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado. I know that many existing oil pumps have been capped; they need to be uncapped. This will upset the environmentalist crowd tremendously, but I feel it is about time that they are put in their place. The Sierra Club and others like them are prime examples. Thank You for all you're doing to assist us here in Idaho. Regards, -- DEAR SENATOR: Thanks for your common sense approach to energy issues now facing our country, and Idaho in particular. It completely escapes me as to why Congress continues to bow to the shouts of a few (environmentalists) while ignoring the overwhelming desires of the majority. Latest polls indicate over 60% of Americans want us to use our natural resources to help solve our short term energy requirements. We have a small company with a fleet of 4 service vehicles. The vehicles are all small, compact hatchback type autos that are quite fuel efficient. We average about 2000 miles per week for all 4 vehicles. When gas was $2.00 per gallon, we could expect to spend about 650.00 per month on fuel. Now we are approaching $1500.00 per month for the same mileage with no end in sight. Like most companies our size, we choose to absorb some of those costs for the sort term, but as it becomes clear that the prices we see today are the prices we will see in the foreseeable future, we will have to pass on the additional (and unexpected) costs to our clients. Our clients are made up mostly of small retail and service businesses who will, in turn, pass on their increased expenses to their customers and clients, the everyday citizen and the base of your constituency. Our story is a small one but one I believe is representative of the vast collection of small businesses across the country. This energy issue will cut deep into everyone's pocket, and not just at the pump! It is time to pass legislation that will encourage responsible use of our natural resources in our own country. It is absurd that the Red Chinese can legally exploit natural resources within 50 miles of our shores when U.S. companies are prohibited by federal law to do the same thing. What happened to practicality and commonsense in our U.S. Congress and Senate? Can we actually sacrifice what amounts to a breach in our national security over environmental issues that may have been valid in the 1960s but are absolutely outdated (by superior technology) today. I believe (as do the majority of Americans) that we can use the natural resources God has provided our great nation in a responsible and conscientious way that will leave a clean environment and a strong economy. Sincerely,
BOB, Post Falls.
TIFFANY, Boise.
KRISTI.
GERALD, Weiser.
MYRNA.
BOB, Boise.
UNSIGNED.
M., Rexburg.
DM.
F.
CARL, Nampa.
KIRK.
PATTY.
GRANT, Twin Falls.
TOM, Boise.
Source