Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - June 24, 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: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The rising cost of fuel and food are a big concern for us that live in Northern Idaho. We live in a lightly populated area and the trips to ``town'' are right at 100 miles round trip. We are on Social Security and Social Security doesn't allow a lot of flexibility in what a person can spend. Basic items like home heating and food prices have made huge changes in the way we live. Recently we had a death in the family in another state (Arizona). After figuring the cost of both driving and flying we determined it would be too much of an expense for us to go. We sent our love and regards--but that doesn't take the place of a hug. The cost of heating our home with heating oil has gone from under a dollar a gallon to 3.97 at the last tank fill up. That is a huge increase for a basic need. Many are worse off then we are and have to choose between being warm and eating. Something must be done. Every day we see our government reaching out with aid to other countries. .....what about those right here in America? I expect the stimulus payment most people received went to catch up on a couple of bills--no one could afford the luxury of just frivolously spending it. We need everyday, down-to-earth practical help so basic needs can be met. Please stop this ever-increasing price on fuel and food. Thank you. .....sincerely, -- I normally drive our 1999 Chevy Suburban. It gets 14 MPG on average. With gas prices over $4.00 a gallon I just use this simple rule of thumb to calculate how much a trip on the interstate costs me. It's simple. At normal interstate speed of 65 MPH, it costs me $20.00 an hour to drive. 65 divided by 14 = 4.65 x $4.10 a gallon = $19.00 not including wear and tear. So $20.00 an hour is my rule of thumb. Now if I lived 1 hour from work and I made $12.50 an hour, I would have to work 3.2 hours more to get my 8 hours pay. Do the math yourself. This has to be fixed. A few things that bother me the most: Hearing that the gas companies have made ``record profits'' again while I'm paying for it; the price of a barrel of oil goes up in the morning then by noon the same day the price of gas goes up even though that gas has been in the underground tank for days; the price of a barrel of oil goes down in the morning but the gas prices stay the same until they can go up again later; relying on foreign oil. That is relying on a foreign people who are not necessarily our friends or care about us; we have oil under our own ground but can't get it? Why? Here's a question. Since when is not having oil not a national security issue? -- SENATOR: Nightly, I listen to a number of pundits and politicos debate the ``solutions'' to our energy problems. One of the more ridiculous ones is mandating people switch to higher fuel efficiency automobiles (i.e., buy a new car). As a small business owner, our health insurance premiums have just gone up (again), the minimum wage has risen, grocery costs are rising and our 401k is diminishing. The very thought of anyone in Congress telling me I have to replace my ``paid for'' cars, and take out a loan to buy a new (more energy efficient) car is ludicrous!! Gasoline would have to be over $10 a gallon to make economic sense to my family, in lieu of absorbing a car payment. I support drilling offshore and in ANWAR, as well as shale oil extraction. I think it's time that the world's most technologically-advanced nation illustrate to the world the most technologically advanced means of extracting energy. I'm deeply offended that the United States government, who can't profitably manage Amtrak, the US Postal Service, or even its own Senate cafeteria, has the audacity to pretend to convince me that they know more about ``safe & sound'' energy extraction than the companies that are professionals in this endeavor. I hear people crying about how drilling in the US might ``spoil natural resources''! I'd be willing to wager that if we weren't dependent upon Middle Eastern oil, we could have, most likely, saved about 4,000 US Servicemen and women's lives. That cost of natural resource is infinitely greater than a handful of caribou! Respectfully, -- My mother-in-law (80 years old) had emergency surgery in Grand Junction, Colorado. With increased fuel prices, the air fare to fly my wife to Grand Junction ONE WAY was almost $900. I drove separately to Grand Junction so our car would be available for our use. The total mileage over a week's time was in excess of 1,500 miles and, at over $4.00/gal, our fuel bill (23 miles/gal) exceeded $260.00. I'd like to buy a more fuel-efficient car, but my down payment was significantly reduced! In eastern Idaho, the cost to go camping, fishing, or hunting will average from 50 miles to 150 miles or more round trip. A weekend outing has increased in cost from $5.00 to $16.00 for someone with a small SUV to $7.50-$22.50 when using the standard pickup and pulling a boat or trailer. This is based on $4.00/gal fuel compared to $2.50/gal a year ago. Summertime costs can easily be $100 per month more for fuel in this area just for simple recreation (long distances and not much else to do). Add a few trips to the store for supplies and the costs can be 50% higher. We can't afford these extra costs. Some think the answer is E-85 Ethanol from corn, but that does NOT save significant petroleum products and creates additional water pollution in corn-growing states. Additionally, my cost for food for my family has gone up significantly because of the increase in the price of corn. So why, oh why, do you in the government PAY the Midwest ethanol producers $0.51/gal to pollute the water and drive up the cost of food throughout the country, while still using as much oil for tractors in the fields, fuel trucks to transport the ethanol (it can't go in pipelines), fertilizer, fuel the ethanol plants, and other energy costs for something that only has about 68% of the energy content of gasoline? You in the government should get out of the way of the energy industry. They were doing fine before government got involved. Please let the energy sector drill for oil, develop coal and oil shale gasification technologies, mine the off-shore methane deposits, and set as a goal that nuclear power plants will be licensed as fast as they can be built. Government reviews should be minimal and should help instead of hinder our progress. Wind power should be developed in areas which have minimal impact (look at the INL site--huge area where the Idaho wind blows all the time). Small solar installations could easily be developed as the solar energy industry grows. The very best thing that government could do is to GET OUT OF THE WAY!! Maybe a few insects and frogs will die as a result, but it is better than running out of energy and then trying to figure out what to do in the dark -- SENATOR CRAPO: I wanted to briefly share some of the impacts the high fuel prices are having on my family. I drive 32 miles one way to work. My car gets about 25 miles per gallon. So it is costing me almost $10 a day just to go to work. My husband is a farmer. We normally purchase 500 gallons of fuel at a time for the farm. We have not been financially able to buy it this spring/summer. He has cut back on the water of the crop because the power bills are so high, which will most likely affect the yield. Fertilizer is skyrocketing. Diesel is ridiculous. Our entire food supply is going to be affected as other farmers face these same problems. We are not buying any extras anymore. Groceries have increased, so non-essentials like chips, candy, boxed cereals, etc. are out. We are not eating out like we used to either. We normally ate out once or twice a week. For the past 18 years, I have planted beautiful potted flowers for the entrance of our home, usually spending around $300. I will not be planting flowers like that this year. We are not buying any new clothes for summer. We'll have to make do. We live in an area where several years ago BP Petroleum came through and indicated that studies show fuel resources are available, however, nothing that we know of is being done to proceed with any exploration or development. You would think that a country as great as ours with as many resources as we have would not allow themselves to be held hostage to foreign fuel resources!!!! We would appreciate any help you can send our way. Sincerely, -- Proposition Fuel Refund and Reform Item 1: There shall be a $4.0 billion one-time charge imposed against each Refinery listed in Item 1 that shall be refunded to all California drivers with a valid California drivers license and age 18 and over. This Charge shall be apply to Exxon Mobil, BP (includes ARCO), Texaco, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Shell, and Citgo. Each Refinery Charged the refund shall pay their amount to the California State Treasury for disbursement within 60 days of the passage of this Proposition. The state shall disburse this money within 150 days of the passage of this Proposition. There shall be a daily fine of $10 million a day charged to any Refinery that has not paid its share of the refund in the allotted time payable to the State of California general fund. Item 2: All Refineries shall sell off all fuel retail establishments within one year of the passage of this proposition. No Refinery or fuel wholesaler shall be allowed to own or control any fuel retail outlets with the passage of this proposition. The price of these establishments must fall within the current market value within its area. Violation of this item will result in a daily fine of 10 million dollars per day payable to the State of California general fund. Item 3: Any present and future contracts between fuel retail outlets shall be hereby banned and null and void. Any fuel retail establishment shall be able to purchase fuel from any Refinery or fuel wholesaler he or she chooses without restriction. Also any retail outlet shall be able to sell multiple brands of fuel without restriction. Violation of this item by any Refinery or fuel wholesaler will result in a daily fine of ten million dollars per day payable to the State of California general fund until corrected. Item 4: Each Refinery selling fuel in California shall maintain a stored reserve of fuel within the borders of California equal to 1.5 times the monthly volume of fuel it sells within the State of California. This requirement shall be enforced beginning 1 year from the passage of this proposition by the State of California. Violation of this item by any Refinery or fuel wholesaler will result in a daily fine of 10 million dollars per day payable to the State of California general fund until corrected. Item 5: Beginning 10 days after the passage of this Proposition and for a period of 5 years, wholesale prices of gasoline and diesel per gallon sold to retail establishments in the State of California shall not exceed 1.2 percent of the average price of oil per barrel on the world market. Violation of this item will result in a daily fine of 10 million dollars per day payable to the State of California general fund. Item 6: Beginning 10 days after the passage of this Proposition and for a period of 5 years retail prices of gasoline and diesel per gallon sold in the State of California shall not exceed 2.0 percent of the average price of oil per barrel on the world market. Violation of this item will result in a daily fine of 10 thousand dollars per day payable to the State of California general fund. Item 7: The people of California have determined by the passing of this proposition that the Refineries listed in item one meet the definition of a monoply because of the way fuel prices have risen everywhere in the state of California in unison in the past 4 years, because these refineries dominate the market, and by the documented huge increased, sustained and increasing profits made by these oil refineries. The people of California request the United States department of Justice apply antitrust legal action against the refineries listed in item 1. Item 8: If any Items listed in this proposition are nullified by court action then all other Items shall remain in effect. -- SENATOR CRAPO: Thank you for asking for my opinion. As I interact with my employees as a business executive, with my fellow church members as a church leader, and as a husband and father, I think the real bottom line is this: The great majority of people have no viable alternative to spending additional money on fuel and many other goods and services that also rise with fuel price increases. Most people are just paying more because there is no alternative. This means that bankruptcy, unemployment, and other severe financial strains will be staved off until they cannot be held off anymore, and then it will collapse. The danger signs of energy dependence are so dire, yet congress does not make any moves. I think the future is bleak for individuals on the edge, and a large ``correction'' is due. I also would not be surprised to see your constituents come after congress with pitchforks and torches, but I have doubts that congress will act. -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: Today, we had to make the difficult choice of putting fuel in the car or grocery shopping. You see, we needed milk, bread, and some other staples and we needed a tank of gas. Each purchase was going to amount to around $80, and we had to choose one or the other. So we gassed up the car and decided to try to make it until payday with the food that we had at home. I have never felt so sick or downtrodden at the one or the other kind of option we faced today. I went home and also deduced through some back bills that our housing heating and cooling has doubled since 2002. In only six years our gas has gone from $67 a month to $112 and our electric from $87 to $167, despite my keeping our heating at 65 day and 60 night in the winter and our cooling at 75 in the summer. We are hard pressed to pay those bills in addition to gas. This spiral has got to stop or I do not know how we are going to manage. Sincerely, -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: I commute 52 miles round trip daily to Rexburg from Idaho Falls. Since January I have been car pooling with a co-worker in my department and we are encouraging our employer to let us telecommute at least one day a week. My family has declared two days a week as ``no drive days'' where we don't even turn the key in either of our cars. We save our errands and schedule appointments for other days of the week. This basic routine is helping, but not enough. We recently had a daughter in the hospital in Idaho Falls for seven and a half weeks, and for another four and a half weeks at the University of Utah Medical Center. Those expenses were of course offset by health insurance, although out of pocket expenses still amounted to thousands of dollars. However during those 12 weeks we had no choice but to drive to the hospital daily while fuel prices were skyrocketing. This created a sudden and unexpected burden on our family budget. With the added cost of fuel forecasted to stay high into the future, our financial recovery is nowhere in sight. Thanks for listening. -- SENATOR CRAPO: I own a small retail shop in Salmon, Idaho. Retailers in this area depend on the local economy and on Tourism to make ends. Tourists provide 60% of our sales revenue and the gas prices have dramatically diminished travelers. Whitewater rafting companies are struggling and my retail store is in danger. I am unable to meet my monthly expenses, let alone purchase merchandise to replenish my normal inventory. Consumers cannot afford anything beyond gas and food. Prices have doubled on groceries, shipping and all are related to rising fuel costs. Most of the people I know have no extra from their paychecks and it is killing small businesses all over the Country! Here in the Rocky Mountains we can't drive hybrid cars. The snow, rain and rural homes make cars impossible. We have to have 4 wheel drives and chains just to get out of our driveways and to the grocery store! There is no mass transit and carpooling wouldn't be feasible. Congress seems to be at a loss as to what to do and if something doesn't happen soon we will be facing a major depression! The Speculators are driving prices even higher and the oil producing nations are unwilling to cut their profits. Most of us feel that Congress and the Senate are in bed with the oil companies. Something has to be done to open oil and gas production in this Country. We have Anwar, the Bakkan oil in the North Central States and off shore oil pockets. It is time that our government look out for the American People and stop bucking under to the Environmentalists. Something has to be done quickly. Long-term renewable energy sources will take decades, by that time all the small businesses like mine will be forced to either close or file bankruptcy. Currently my shop is in jeopardy. I am behind on all my bills and my credit has been ruined so I can't even get a loan to get me through the crisis. If our governmental body can't find a solution now, then expect to see small and medium businesses go under. We are the backbone of this land and we need some backbone leadership!!!! Sincerely -- DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: I would be more than happy to share our story of high energy prices and the toll it is taking on our family and our finances. My husband and I find it outrageous that environmental groups can have SO much pull in this country to put bans on the construction of oil refineries, liquid coal plants and drilling for our own domestic petroleum. At this point, we are dependant on this abundant and efficient fuel. There is no other alternative right now to take the place of petroleum--at least nothing that is practical, efficient and most importantly--affordable!!! To ignore our vast reserves of coal and oil in this country to leave us dependent on Middle East Fuel is ludicrous. There is wonderful technology out there that can turn coal into liquid fuel that burns cleaner than gasoline! But because your average environmentalist does not understand how this technology works--they are against it because traditionally burnt coal is filthy. They would rather grow food crops to fill their tanks up while people and animals starve. We live in Salmon, Idaho. My husband is a Real Estate Appraiser who frequently travels almost 600 miles in a week simply to reach the properties to do his work. The cost of living necessitates at this point that he take EVERY SINGLE job that crosses his desk--so frequently driving round-trip to Arco and back in a day or over to Missoula, Montana and back in a day is a normal thing. BUT--the drawback is that right now we have an outstanding balance on our Chevron card that is over $1,400 and over limit--so we can't even use the card. We make large payments every month, but with the interest rate we still have not been able to bring the balance low enough to even use the card. So we pay the Chevron bill AND pay for gas out of our regular checking account. The Chevron card went well over limit way back when gas hit $3.50 a gallon, and we have not been able to catch up and bring the balance down. We have a propane bill that is over $1,100 right now that I pay $125 a month on--but this is a balance from an $1,800 fill up of our tank back in November of 2007. I am going to call the gas company this week to see if they will fill the tank now while prices are ``lower''. So we will probably have a bill that is over $3,000 for heating our home basically 6 months out of the year. If gas goes any higher--we are going to have to figure out how to get even deeper in debt to find a cheaper way to heat our home in the winter. As you know--Idaho gets cold. We HAVE to heat our home!!! Living in Salmon, we HAVE to drive over 300 miles in a round trip either to Idaho Falls or Missoula Montana for doctors, Costco, clothes shopping etc.--as due to there being a lack of logging or mining anymore there is really no local options for shopping, etc. The very lives of people living here depend on big rig trucks bringing our food etc. For MANY years now, we have been hearing of the Idaho Cobalt Project--but because the environmentalists have such a stranglehold on ALL industries in this country--we are still awaiting word of WHEN or IF this project will start. If it does get clearance, Salmon, Idaho will once again have jobs that pay a living wage for a family. We have a house that we moved out of in downtown Salmon in 2005--it has been sitting empty awaiting a buyer since then. It is in a commercial zone--and commercial is dead in Salmon. We filed paperwork with our mortgage company way back in February to give the house back in a Deed in Lieu--and we are still awaiting word!!! Apparently, the mortgage companies are backlogged about 6 months? We can't afford to visit family in California because we can't afford the gas. My husband's mother and father in California got extremely ill this last year, but he was never able to visit because of the debt load we are carrying and how expensive driving or flying is!! We are working to make payments and catch up on our gas bills that are maxed out right now. We stopped making payments on a house that would not sell for 3 years now--that has left us behind in everything. With fuel costs continuing to rise because we have a Democratic Liberal, Anti-American Congress that continues to ban any sort of domestic drilling for our own petroleum deposits--we don't even have a chance to catch up right now as gas prices continue to rise. We are fortunate though. My husband has a busy and successful business and thankfully at least, we are able to work to make our payments. On Father's Day, we decided against a picnic any further than 5 miles out of town because of the cost of fuel. It is sickening to us that our government cares SO little for the average working American. It is sad that our government has allowed itself to be controlled by secular humanist environmentalists who care more for a spotted owl or a tiny snail than the human family. Just ask anyone here in Salmon how we feel about the forests being shut down to logging--yet it is perfectly fine for the forest that is becoming nothing more than a deadfall tinderbox to burn and choke us with toxic, suffocating smoke for 2 months every summer! Something has to change because if it does not soon--this country is going to enter a depression that makes the Great Depression look like the Good Old Days!!! Sincerely, -- It is very hard to understand why the United States, the most powerful Nation on Earth, is begging the Middle East for oil. We need to immediately increase drilling off shore, in Alaska and other States, plus utilize technology available to extract oil from shale deposits in the Rocky Mountains. We have advanced technology sufficiently to be safe for the environment and yet provide for ourselves rather than being dependent upon the Middle East. Is it true that China is drilling off the Florida coast, but we can't? In Idaho Falls, the Chamber is bragging about bringing a French company's new uranium enrichment plant and the corresponding jobs to the area to fuel nuclear power for France. WHAT--we have had the capability of generating nuclear power at the INEL for 35 years. My father worked at the INEL for 35 years. You mean to tell me the environmentalists will allow uranium enrichment for France, but we can't utilize an existing US nuclear plant for power for Idaho? Bio-fuels are not the whole answer, it puts too much pressure on our farmland that we need to crop food crops. The prices of food are going up enough because of the fuel costs. The US has substantial coal deposits, we need to build more coal fired power plants. Combined with the nuclear and wind, we should be able to have more than enough power to re-charge hybrid cars. Besides increasing drilling in the US, we need to invest in some updated/additional refineries. Then, Congress needs to do something about the speculators driving up the price of crude oil. I don't know if you can make it illegal to speculate on oil futures or restrict it, but news media are reporting that $3.00 of every gallon goes to speculators profits buying and selling. -- DEAR SENATOR: My husband and I own a small business in Lewiston, where we do print advertising and TV/Video productions (among other things). We live close to our business, so although our fuel prices have increased, it's not having a huge impact--YET. However, we frequently have to travel across or out of the state to shoot various jobs, and we are now having to charge such high travel expenses that we are at risk of losing some clients to production companies closer to their location, even though they would prefer to keep working with us. We are bidding on a job right now which falls in that category--a year ago we would have quoted them $200 for mileage, and now we have to quote almost $500. Obviously this will impact our bottom line by the end of the year--something that we really can't afford. -- SENATOR CRAPO: I would guess that my story is different than the story you were looking for. In 1974 I graduated from the University of California with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. The height of the first real Oil Crisis created by OPEC. Because of the skyrocketing price of gasoline, gas lines, and shortages, I purchased a manual transmission diesel Volkswagen for $7,500. That car on average got 52 miles per gallon. Diesel is a cheap byproduct of gasoline refinement. At that time, it cost 1/2 the price of gasoline per gallon. Tell me why it costs more than gasoline now? A few weeks after graduation, I was granted a full scholarship to continue engineering graduate school at UC. In 1979 I graduated from UC with a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, my specialty: thermodynamics, energy, and materials science. My thesis was on the extraction of heat energy from hot geothermal brine solutions. I started working for a startup company purchased by Weyerhaeuser. My project was researching burning lignite (dirty coal) in a fluidized bed reactor to produce clean coal energy. It included the removal of NOX, SOX, and high temperature particulate down below the submicron size. My research burned one train car load of lignite (environmentally the worst coal to burn with the lowest heating value) from West Virginia, in Menlo Park, CA every day 24/7 for nearly 9 months performing experiments under contract with the US DOE. Our work was successful but went no further. During the operation of that combustion system and the associated experiments we passed all EPA combustion gas stream standards. That company years later went bankrupt. I left after 2 years to join Hewlett Packard in their computer systems group. For the past 25 years I've been involved in semiconductor manufacturing. Thirty years have passed and sadly our government is no closer to a long term proactive energy policy than it was in 1979. It is a national disgrace and one day will be a national disaster which will make the Great Depression pale in comparison. PLEASE, wait no longer. Turning food stocks into ethanol, waiting for cheap solar, and looking to the wind to solve this global crisis is beyond ridiculous. Drill now in ANWR, Drill off the Coasts of Florida, and California, Turn on the clean coal industry and liquefy coal for fuel, build as many nuclear power plants as fast as possible (then maybe we can avoid the energy depression). I don't believe we have another 30 years to gamble away. Regards, -- MIKE, I really believe that we don't need to find alternative fuels. America is set up to burn petroleum based products and there are so many drawbacks to all of the ``bio'' fuels. We have lots of oil right off of our own coasts and in the Gulf on Mexico, ANWR and North and South Dakota with oil shale. Our problem to being independent is not supply, Arabs or the environment! It's Congress and the wacko left enviro crowd who would rather see us all on bicycles! I'm 62 years old and I DO ride a bicycle. However, like you mentioned in your opening letter, bikes don't work all the time in Idaho. Matter of fact between October and June, they suck! We had 2" of snow in Moscow on June 10th this year. Congress needs to just get out of the way and let industry do its thing. Mike, I realize you're only one Senator from a little-known state out West that doesn't matter to everybody East of the Mississippi River but some how we have to find the courage to stand up to the liberal Dems before our economy state and country are turned into a Third World European nightmare like B. H. O is designing. Sincerely,
MR. AND MRS. RAY, Priest River.
AARON, Caldwell.
DANIEL, Boise.
DARYL.
MARIE.
UNSIGNED.
AARON, Coeur d'Alene.
D., Boise.
BOB AND BEVERLY, Idaho Falls.
DONNA, Salmon.
BRENT AND KATIE, Salmon.
CHRIS, Idaho Falls.
BOBRI, Lewiston.
LARRY, Eagle.
DAVE, Moscow.
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