Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - September 24, 2008)
Mr. CRAPO. Madam 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 1,000, are heartbreaking and touching. To respect their efforts, 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:
It is a relief to finally see someone in our legislation coming to the people for their input! I am currently serving in the USAF, stationed at Mountain Home AFB. I work in Flying Ops. I put about 35 miles a day on my vehicle, just coming to and going home from work. The base itself is ten miles away from town; my house, about 15 miles away from the base. The average price for a gallon of unleaded here is about $4.09. The base has up until now been able to keep its gas prices under $4, but finally hit it this past Monday. I drive a 4-cylinder VW Jetta, with a 14-gallon tank and it costs me $46 to fill it up. I find myself only driving to and from work, as I do not feel like I can afford to drive anywhere else, which is a bummer as Mountain Home's resources are low and if I need something that I cannot find at Wal-Mart (like clothes and shoes for my infant daughter), I have to drive to Boise to get those, or home improvement material, or clothing for myself. I also find my grocery bill skyrocketing. I used to be able to spend $150 and get food for two weeks. I now find that $150 lasts me about a week, which is unacceptable. I am putting so much money towards the necessities that I hardly do any of the niceties anymore. My husband has parked his truck in favor of driving his motorcycle to work everyday to save us money, and we are selling our boat as it just costs way too much to fill it up, and the truck to tow the boat to any lake. So, in the end, energy costs have driven me to only drive to and from work, sell my boat, park my truck, and spend a ridiculous amount of money on food. Thanks for your time.
JESSICA, Mountain Home.
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Thank you for this opportunity to express my concerns regarding the escalating price of living in Idaho due in large part to the ever increasing cost of energy.
I work for Alaska Airlines in Boise, Idaho. My gas bill to cover my commute has gone from $100 to $300 per month. Our industry has been heavily affected by the obscene rise in the cost of aviation fuel. Alaska Air is a profitable business. They've worked very hard at putting a lot of cash in the bank. They never just spent their way into bankruptcy, then emerged a few years later with all of their debts relieved.
Today, in order to stay alive, in addition to raising air fares and reducing routes, they have to charge seemingly ridiculous charges for the ordinary services associated with travel. And still the cost of fuel rises. Just today we received the ``second'' corporate letter, advising us that Alaska Airlines is doing all it possibly can to reduce costs, that each of us needs to be conscious of everything we do and be as profitable as we can with each service we provide. I work in a call center. Are those the voices of [foreign] call center agents I hear at Alaska Airline's front door? Not only are some of the finest American customer service agents in danger of losing our jobs, but the least respected of all call center personnel will smudge the here-to-fore finest airline service in the world.
I have read that you have worked on alternative fuel development. This is a fine aspiration, but with what result? At present, alternative fuels cannot even begin to touch the huge volume it would take to replace gas and oil energy. And, as a result of corn-based fuels, corn-based commodities around the world have also escalated in price. Cereal, tortillas, breads, dog food, chicken and beef feed, the list goes on, are all affected by increased prices I pay every day. And in Third World countries, where such commodities are staples, people are facing shortages and starvation. When the farmer cannot afford to cultivate his crops, the trucker cannot afford to pick up the crops and bring them to market, and the market has to raise the prices of staples, how far behind are we from becoming a society of haves and have-nots?
For far too long now, we have let the environmental movement intimidate our energy policy in this country. It started with a little bit of this and that. We stopped drilling for oil and gas off our scenic coasts and large inland tracts of land deemed environmentally sensitive. We stopped approving refineries and thereby reduced our domestic supplies of fuel, relying instead on ever-increasing foreign sources. One of the biggest environmental accidents happened near Valdez, Alaska. Environmentalists blamed big oil. Ironically, the oil spilled was imported from the Middle East. Accompanying all this was the slow rise in the price consumers pay to run their cars and heat their homes.
Our government has played both side of the aisle with CAFE standards that have not improved gas mileage so much as to drive the price of cars to the same price as a good house in the 1960s. Regulations have driven refineries to further increase the price of fuel required to manufacture multiple blends. All of these products are heavily taxed by our government. If the oil companies are accused of making obscene profits, then can we not say the same about the never-mentioned windfall profits that our federal government collects?
What would I do? I would ask you to start plans to find and develop our best sources of domestic oil and natural gas resources. I would ask you to find places in this country that would just love to refine petroleum and encourage their communities to do so with plenty of tax incentives. Just getting the plans on the board would burst this bubble of inflationary speculation. (These suggestions, if started today would take at least ten years to get up and running).
I would also ask that we start plans to build safe and efficient nuclear power plants. France and Germany possess marvelous examples we can emulate and exceed. And standardize the plan designs. Multiple designs in the past really bloated the cost of construction. And further, we need to fend off the environmentalist's incessant legal maneuvering that have historically subverted and inflated the price of energy development.
Well, this is more than two paragraphs. But it contains in my opinion, the elements we need to address today and with haste.
ROBERT, Boise.
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I am writing to you in response to your newsletter about high energy prices and how that affects the people of Idaho. You have requested me to share my story about how high energy prices are affecting me personally.
I am more than happy to share with you my sufferings as an Idahoan in light of the increased speculative energy prices that we, as a nation, are facing. It has not been easy, as I am sure can be difficult for some people who make far more money and have more influence to understand. Month after month we Americans have been struggling to make ends meet in this day and time where our nation has been faced by higher energy costs based off of speculative markets, and foreign energy needs. Never in our recent past has our government set us up for failure as a nation to be more independent on the energy needs of our country. Now we are paying the price for turning a blind eye to a growing energy problem and possibly inappropriate relationships and deals with companies and foreign nations. Never before in American history does it make better sense for us to look at new energy supplies, increase energy efficiency, and break our dependence on foreign oil. There are many different renewable resources to concentrate on, many of which (with government backing and subsidies) would allow us as individuals to incorporate our own energy needs with energy supplies that we can create on an individual basis. I am talking about solar power, wind power, hydro electricity (on a very small scale of course). Not only by allowing individual Americans cheaper more realistic options for creating our own energy would we really grasp the amount of independent energy we could create. This has yet to happen, as time and time again, [partisan politicians] shoot down solar energy bills, renewable resources options, and energy tax benefit programs. I base this solely off of the ignorance of the [party-line politics], especially considering I have written to [my congressional representatives and] all of my other government officials pleading for you to break from [partisanship] to help alleviate our dependence on foreign energy suppliers.
To make matters worse for me and fellow Idahoans, you and Larry Craig are now working hard to make our state available to nuclear power. This is not help, in my honest opinion. You call it a renewable energy resource; I call it ignorant energy band aid that carry very long term affects. We Idahoans do not and never did want our state to become the nation's nuclear dumping ground. Yet, you officials continue to make our lands available for the spent nuclear energy of other states, and now other nations. Also, you are opening the doors to corporate entities that want to take advantage of our weak state policies so that they can create nuclear facilities in Idaho that will not even be supplying Idahoans with such said energy.
So, again, you ask me how the today's energy crisis is affecting the people that put you in office. I tell you it is affecting me in the pocket book, in my personal values and beliefs of renewable energy options, and now you are allowing it to affect the land that I love so much--the good state of Idaho.
If you really want to help, then I suggest that you stand up for the people [who] voted for you. [I would ask that you find ways to] build our options away from foreign energy dependence, and give us more renewable energy options. I implore you to stand up for our state, and help us protect ourselves from corporate greed and nuclear mistakes by protecting the lands we love, and keep them from having half-life pollution dumped on them.
ANDREW.
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I am a LT in the U.S. Navy stationed in Cape Canaveral, FL. I have been in the Navy for 18 years and claim Nampa as my home of record. My parents still live in Nampa and are retired. The ever-rising fuel costs over the last few years have not only produced a dramatic impact on my day-to-day living activities, but those of my parents' and other family members as well who live in Idaho.
I have been driving the same vehicle over eight years and am currently spending approximately $500/month in fuel for my vehicle alone. My wife spends almost $350/month in her vehicle. These costs are almost exclusively utilized for commuting to and from work. We go to the grocery store once every two weeks, and hardly ever go out anymore. I estimate from one year ago a rise of at least $250/month, and probably $400/month from two years ago in gasoline spending. To put this into perspective, that is an estimated $3,000 annually. It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that my cost of living increase of about $100/month does not even come close to making up the difference. Not to mention the dramatic rise in food costs we have experienced over the last year (and we even have the privilege of shopping at the commissary). Add to that the drastic loss of equity in my home (almost $100k in two years) because of the housing market here in central Florida, and you begin to get a good feeling of how the little guy feels.
Now, I have proudly served my country for almost two decades, have contributed significantly to bettering our world and saving money at the same time. (I recently developed and implemented a continuous improvement project here at the Navy Port in Cape Canaveral that saves the taxpayers approximately $300,000 annually!). My question to you, ladies and gentlemen, is what are you doing to help me out in this time of crisis!! Thank you for your attention.
JOSH, Nampa.
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We are happy to hear that President Bush has opened our water borders for oil drilling. Now we need the rest of those places that have oil to be opened to drilling! It is late to be doing such but totally necessary. For the protection of our country, we need to have energy to survive! Many around use are using bicycles to get around or walking. My health is not good enough to do that although I am going to work in that direction. We also need trails where battery golf carts, etc., can maneuver around for the sake of the older generation. Our family has to travel to work so they still have to drive. Please encourage President Bush and the Congress to open all areas with oil for drilling and also point the nation toward many other possibilities for other energy fuels.
ART and LYNN, Nampa.
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Actually, I do not agree with your stance on this, at all. The cost of not protecting the environment will far outweigh the costs of increased gas/oil prices. I do not know about you, but I would actually like our children to have a world to live in, even if that means I pay for that right now. I would rather see our government invest in new energy technology, cleaner sources of fuels, mass transit, bicycle lanes to encourage safe bike commuting, etc rather than drill in ANWR and keep taxes on gas down.
I have yet to understand the conservative view of supporting oil drilling at the expense of supporting other industries. There is a fortune to be made in developing technologies designed to clean the environment rather than foul it. The U.S. is losing jobs and revenues every year to other countries in old industries. Our strength as a nation has long been in developing brand-new industries. Why not encourage that now? Why not invest in a new biofuel technology like algae farms? Why not invest in companies developing ways to clean smokestack exhaust? Why not invest in river clean-up processes? Whether we want to admit it or not, these are the types of technologies that will be America's future. We should be embracing them, not suffocating them by limiting research dollars.
Unfortunately, as fledgling industries, they do not have the voice that large, highly profitable industries like oil and gas, do and thus they do not hold as much political influence. It is truly a shame that our country has devolved to such a base motivation as this.
I respect and admire your concern for the economic impact rising gas prices are having on individual families in Idaho. And I understand that if you do not work to protect you constituents they will elect someone who will. But there comes a point at which our elected officials need to act in our long term best interests even if it means short term sacrifices by the people. If doing so costs a politician their seat in the next election, they'll still be able to take much pride in having done the right thing, for the right reasons.
When do you reach that point? What issue gets you there?
CHRIS.
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This is not about how energy prices affect my standard of living, but how it affects the standard of living of everyone. We are about to lose many jobs because of high energy prices. The high price of natural gas is going to close down many industries that use large quantities. The impact on Americans lives will be lot worse than $4 gasoline. We are on the edge of a depression if we lose as many jobs as I think we might.
Congress needs to immediately lease offshore tracts off Florida, and the east coast. Open up offshore California. Get the Alaska pipeline going. That alone can provide 10% of our nation's natural gas needs. Reinvent the nuclear industry. Financially sponsor a reference nuclear generating plant so that future developers will know the costs. The costs are so uncertain that everyone is afraid of the risk. We need to produce electricity with coal and nuclear not natural gas. Remember, in the 1970s, it was unlawful to construct new natural gas fired power plants because Congress deemed it a waste of the resource.
Once we have a stable supply of natural gas encourage it is use as a transportation fuel. Honda makes a Compressed Natural Gas Civic, and I saw one at the Honda dealer in California last week. It is a great car for certain people. We do not have one public CNG filing station in Idaho.
By developing our own resources natural gas, oil shale, coal, and nuclear, we can quit sending billions of dollars to the Middle East and create good jobs for Americans.
Forget alternative energy sources for the time being. It is a distraction from the emergency we are now facing. Focus on the immediate need to save jobs. If Congress does not quickly declare a National Emergency and allow more energy development by cutting through the regulatory processes for permits and opening up more areas for drilling we face economic collapse.
Please try to get Congress to quit grandstanding and work on real solutions. Having oil companies CEOs testify about their compensation packages when the details are already in the public record is pure grandstanding, a disgrace and does nothing to help Americans.
Read The Bottomless Well by Peter Huber and Mark Mills.
TYLER.
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