Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - September 22, 2008)
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 over 1,000, are heartbreaking and touching. To respect their efforts, I am submitting every e-mail sent to me through energy You asked for comments on how the fuel costs have affected me. It has been good for my health. The high fuel prices have gotten me back on my bicycle, and I am enjoying it very much. I put baskets on my bike to carry supplies and groceries, and it works very well. When I see people driving three or four blocks to get coffee or ice cream or beer or whatever, and then listen to them complain about how much fuel costs them, I have a hard time with that. I drive a lot less than I used to, and am hoping the rest of the country will follow suite. I turned my thermostat down this past winter, and my bills went down even with rising costs. Putting a sweater on is easy. As people comment when they see my baskets full of groceries, most of them say they should do that. I am wondering why they are not. Instead they go to the gym and burn gas getting there and back to get a workout. Why not walk or ride a bike? Hopefully, folks will start thinking about how far away their job is and try to live within a short commute or bike ride away. There are lots of things people can do to consume less. More public transportation is a must and would be a lot cheaper in more ways than one, than more nuclear power plants. More bike-friendly places and bike paths would get people riding. The communities/cities of Idaho would be a much better place to live that have walk/bike friendly road/ shoulders. So this is how high fuel prices have affected me in Idaho. We all need to get out of our cars and enjoy the scenery! Thanks, -- I am an owner/operator truck driver. It is getting real hard to make a living out here on the road. The price of fuel is almost to the point of shutting this country down. I have just a few more payments left on my truck . At this point, I cannot make a full payment on my truck each month. So it is going to take even longer to get the job done. When I get the truck paid off, I am afraid, like many others, I will have to park my truck. I cannot haul freight for nothing. I do not enjoy it that much. I use to stay out 4-6 weeks at a time; now, I have to stay out 2 months or longer and still cannot keep the payments caught up. But I am so exhausted that I have to take a few days off. This only makes me farther behind. Thanks for the help! -- Almost half our state of Idaho is rural, and much is in BLM Land. So, to get to Idaho cities requires driving long stretches of highway or two-lane roads. I have to drive to Garden Valley every weekend from Boise, and sometimes I have to go there two or three times per week. At 60 miles one way and 120 miles roundtrip, we have seen our gasoline bill nearly double. Next to our mortgage payment, gasoline expense has become our second highest cost in our household. I get raises very infrequently, so this has shot our budget. We do not shop as much and we have stopped going out to eat or go to any entertainment. This, in turn, has hurt our economy. I listened to the Governor of Montana say he has enough coal and oil along with the major oil finds in the Dakotas to virtually replace the dependence we are placing on foreign energy, but our own red tape has hamstrung our domestic energy companies from developing these resources. Why? It is past time to drill in ANWR. Let us get that rolling now--we have better technology to minimize the environmental impact than any other nation on earth. The time is ripe to even consider re-introducing the 55 MPH speed limit again. I am ready to vote for nationalizing oil, natural gas, and electricity. These three resources have got to be stabilized for our nation to stay in good economic health. By not stabilizing these three resources, we are headed for economic ruin. Right now, corn is up so high for the ethanol that farmers are producing that they are not selling corn for food. Cattle are not getting enough feed to eat, so ranchers are planning to mass sell off their herds, which will temporarily glut the marketplace then beef will soar in cost. Our airplane and automotive situation has nosedived, and the vacation industry is failing. Private truckers are parking their rigs and even selling them to Russia, so when gas and diesel prices come down, the trucking industry will not recover. Of course, the housing market is dying with the subprime mortgage mess, and banks do not have the necessary reserves on hand to even lend more money though the Fed has lowered the interest rates to 2%. Frankly, unless some or all of the oil and natural gas industry is immediately nationalized, I fear we are economically doomed and will lead the whole world into an economic recession/depression. Please kill any legislation regarding carbon capping. There is no way there is enough CO2 in the world to cause global warming. With CO2 only comprising .05% of the atmosphere, even doubling, tripling, its concentration will not cause global warming, but sunspot flare activity surely can and does cause global warming. Over 21,000 scientists now agree this is true versus 2,500 who disagree. We have got to wake up and take action together. Thanks for asking for our opinion. -- If the U.S. government reduced some of the huge amounts of oil held in reserve, the price of oil would immediately fall. I just cannot understand why such action has not been taken and can only conclude that [partisan or illegal actions may be behind the price fixing.] Regards, -- As a single father and college student, I pay over $500 per month in child support. I am barely making it and I depend on student loans to even survive. I cannot afford to be paying outrageous prices for gas. I have errands to run everyday. If this continues, I do not know what I can do to keep a roof over my head and feed my children when I have them. Please, we cannot ignore this price gouging. -- Thanks, Senator Crapo, for this opportunity to share my opinions and stories about the high cost of fuels and how it is affecting my immediate family. Two weeks ago, my husband finally broke down and called our fuel oil dealer to order 100 gallons of stove oil. It has been a cool spring. We have been wearing extra sweaters and jackets to be warm inside our home! The price for that was $450, and that did not fill up our tank. This is the end of winter; what is stove oil going to cost in the fall, next winter? Not so long ago stove oil was pennies on the dollar. We used to burn wood, but it also takes gas for the chainsaw and truck to haul it home. You also have to buy a permit to gather the wood. It is no longer free! My Social Security check is $515 a month. I live 16 miles to our nearest town, 42 miles to Couer d' Alene, our county seat where we conduct a lot of our business. There is no public transportation to anywhere I live. People in the East have no concept of the distance to places in the West!!! Back there you can visit several states and we are still on our way to Boise when they have come and gone to their state capitol and perhaps 5 or six bordering states. Boise is 400 miles south on what is referred to as the ``Goat Trail''. It is about an eight-hour trip by car. Folks, it is no freeway. North Idaho's freeway is I-90 & it is 75 miles wide. That is the width of the panhandle there. We have driven the most economical car possible since 1985 when Chevrolet came out with the Chevy Sprint that consistently gives about 45 miles to the gallon. It is a 3-cylinder car that is great for commuting, but it is no luxury car. Our second car is a 1996 Subaru Legacy Outback. It carries a month's worth of groceries and other supplies. It also brings us to the top of the hill we live on when there is lots of snow on the ground. Chevrolet first came out with the Sprint, then the Geo and now the Aveno (?I believe it is called). Each model the gas mileage has decreased significantly. In our area, doctors and dentists are driving them for the gas mileage, not for their luxury. You see, it is affecting the professionals too! I feel that the car companies and oil companies are in cahoots to keep the gas flowing when they can and have designed fuel efficient vehicles for the modern day public. Take the time to view the DVD, ``Who Killed the Electric Car?'' It tells what happened to the electric car. It is available in the Kootenai/Shoshone public library system. General Motors developed an electric car in the late '90's, 2000's that was leased to drivers in California. Each driver loved their car. Had fun with it and it was economical to drive with rechargeable batteries. Some models even recharged as they were driven. They did not even need to be parked to be recharged. They were economical, easy to maintain and sensible to drive. What happened to them? They were taken away from the drivers/leasee & destroyed/crushed!!!! And that under much protest! Some of these things we've done to ourselves, but other things the American public does not have many choices when it comes to what we drive. I will tell you this all these SUV's on the highway are a disgrace to economy. And legislation was giving a tax break if you went out and purchased one a few years ago. Tell me, what kind of economic sense does that make??? They're just a pack of gas guzzlers!!! Thanks again for the opportunity to sound off a bit! -- I am 63-years-old and last year, right before the prices went out of control, already had purchased an electric bike to use to get to work. Fortunately, I only live a little over a mile away and can use this bike that goes 15 miles an hour. My determination to ride this bike increased as the hot days turned into colder ones and I was able to ride my bike through November so I would not have to fill the pick-up with gas too much. Government wants us to recycle to help the environment and I am all for it, but when we try to do our part, we do not get any help in return. If you do get an electric car which no one can afford but the wealthy. I see my single parent daughter trying to commute and make ends meet and it gets increasingly difficult because with gas prices she goes with less food for family, etc. I think it is outrageous for our country and politicians to allow these price increases when we have the means to take care of this country. Twenty years ago they spoke of getting alternatives and did not push this issue and had they done so much more could have been done. I am afraid that before long we will see violence in this country mainly because our jobs are gone, price increases in every area of products, but no one ever increases the wages to meet the demands of other increase. What is the matter with people in government and businesses? I do not like to see government control but because our business people will not use common sense to see what happens when the jobs go there is not sufficient jobs to go and buy the products. What is wrong with this picture? We need to start taxing products from overseas that come here so businesses will come back to the states and put our people back to work. How sad our government has deserted their own people. I am hoping with all my heart that someone will step up to the plate and really try to make a difference. We have to do something as everything is getting out of control and it is sad because of what our forefathers have tried to do before us to make it a great country. I am angry and I do not like politics, but when I see people trying to do well for their families and that means is taken away from them, someone needs to speak up. -- I appreciate the help trying to keep energy prices at a manageable level. As a lifelong Idahoan, I have grown accustomed to the Idaho way of life. I travel to the same hunting and fishing grounds that my father and my grandfather have previously shown me, teaching my kids to enjoy what our state has to offer. I am a married father of three kids, hoping for a couple more. I work as an accountant and, for the last two-and-a-half half years, my wife has stayed home to raise our kids. It was a giant leap of faith for us to go from two incomes down to one. We sacrificed a lot of the little luxuries but have been blessed by being able to teach our kids. As a result, my eldest daughter, who is in second grade, has excelled in school. She and her siblings love to learn. As the general costs of living have increased, I made the decision to pick up a paper route to help build our savings. I spent many years in college before finally graduating from BSU in 2005. Our savings was depleted. Just as we thought we were going to get ahead, the gas prices started going up. The speed at which they increased has not allowed wages to follow. I still throw papers, but the amount of money I can earn is much lower. My route requires me driving over 40 miles each day. This is on top of my 17-mile each way commute to work. There is little to no public transportation here, and my commute is a bit longer than a bike ride. Cost of living has risen dramatically requiring me to use the money earned from newspaper delivery to help supplement our budget to pay bills. Travel plans this spring and summer have been canceled due to the price of fuel. The number of trips I will be able to take to get in some fly fishing will be cut as well. What I would like to see is a short term help but long term solution. While an increase in domestic supply will begin to stabilize prices, it will not be a long term solution due to the volatile OPEC. We need alternative energy solutions and an increase in public transportation. I hope that our countries leaders can keep an open eye to all sources of power. INL has long been a great source for nuclear power but it seems that too many people are scared to work with. The Integral Fast Reactor was shut down during the Clinton era and years of technology was lost. We must find a better solution. -- I work in Hailey, which is a commute of 150 miles each work day. It now costs me in excess of one hour of my wages to make the drive. My gasoline costs are around $800 per month. We heat our house with oil and it now costs us right at $1,000 to fill our 250-gallon barrel. We cannot afford to take a vacation because of the fuel, motel, and food prices. My wife and I find this quite disheartening. I would really like to see the United States become energy self-sufficient. I know the technology is available to help us get their let us offer entrepreneurs incentives to accomplish this. If Congress would make all cars sold in the U.S. flex fuel cars, this would drive the alternative fuel market into production. If Congress would require that all new cars meet the fuel economy requirements that are scheduled for 2020 become a requirement by 2010, this would also help. If Congress would take control over fuel and energy futures trading, this would also help. Thank Congress for taking away the incentives to the fuel producers. We put a man on the moon in less that a decade, so I truly believe we can become self sufficient if we put our minds and hearts toward this goal. Sincerely, -- I live ten miles from town. I moved to this location for solitude several years ago. Because of the greed of the petroleum industry, I am to the point that I cannot take my handicapped wife for a weekend drive. My propane heating bill has doubled since last year. If this greed continues, I will have to make a choice of what I can buy with the income that I have. Do I buy fuel so I can take my wife to her doctors, some of which are located in Lewiston, 55 miles from our house, or drive the ten miles to town to get her much-needed medicine, get groceries, which we cannot buy like we used to, or pay the ever-increasing heating bill from this past winter? There are reason why the cost of fuel are on a continuing on this outragest rise. Refineries are not at capacity; there are no new refineries; the environmentalists, with the help of their liberal judges, stop any new drilling for oil; pure greed by the petroleum industry. Whenever there is a new development to increase fuel mileage, the petroleum industry buys up the patents and kills them. -- I cannot understand why Congress cannot see the need to allow the United States to access more of our own energy sources. Yes, we need new alternative fuels, but we also need to become more realistic about our solutions to the energy crisis. We need to combine research AND start making use of our own current oil supplies. We need to start drilling in the locations where oil has already been discovered. Why has Congress ridiculed President Bush when he asked the Saudis to produce more oil when Congress refused to do the same right in our own country? He did ask Congress first. I would also like to see the Congressmen invite the scientists who do not agree with man-made global warming to testify and bring their facts forward. Forming an energy policy on an unproven crisis does not make much sense. -- I drive 80 miles a day round trip to work in the Sun Valley area from Fairfield. ``Real'' people cannot afford to live within 30 miles of the Hailey/Sun Valley area due to exorbitant house prices, so the local economy is dependent on those who will drive from outlying areas. The high gas prices are crippling my family's ability to stay in South Central Idaho.
LYNN, Rathdrum.
DANNY.
HERMAN.
BILL.
DOUG.
TIFFANY, St. Maries.
DEVERA, Nampa.
JOE, Boise.
WALT, Kimberly.
WENDELL, Orofino.
GLORIA.
RANDY.
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