Idahoans Speak Out on High Energy Prices
Floor Speech
IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES -- (Senate - September 30, 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 well over 1,200, 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:
I am listening to you on ``Probing America'' and wanted to express my thoughts on the current oil situation.
We, as a family, have obviously cut down on our driving around town and the trips to the store. We recently moved back to Idaho from Washington to be closer to my parents, who are having many health problems. They live in the small town of Soda Springs. Due to employment, I am not able to live closer than a couple hours away in Idaho Falls. Recently my father has had a stroke, and we have not been able to travel to Soda to help my mother out on the farm. We are a fairly new family (not well-established) and do not have a large amount of disposable income. Just the rise in our everyday gas costs has cut the remaining disposable income down to nil and now we cannot afford to do the needed extra traveling. My oldest brother has been helping as much as he can, but I know that gas prices are a burden for him as well. This is frustrating to us as this is the only stumbling block that is preventing us in doing what we moved back to do. This does not even account for the increased price of all the other everyday items that are more expensive due to the retail market passing on their increased costs to the consumer.
I also just heard on the radio that Meals on Wheels in Pocatello may start turning away new customers due to high gas prices.
I think that the number one priority should be to expand our own resources. I am tired of being pushed around by a radical few. I believe that pollution is bad and that we should protect our surroundings as much as possible. However, I believe that a few radical environmentalists have outspoken the silent majority. I think that we should tap into the oil reserves that we have hear in our own back yard. I think that it is ludicrous that other countries are drilling for oil just off the coast and we are not able to. By allowing them to drill off our coast, we are accepting the risk of environmental pollution without any benefit. I think that we should tap into the reserves in ANWR. I believe that the imprint would be minimal compared to the benefit that we would receive.
Other energy resources, such as nuclear, should be expanded. However, our priority for the near future should be to start processing our own oil.
Thank you for your work and allowing us as Idahoans express our views.
JUSTIN.
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I am a retired Idahoan who spent much of his professional career working at the Idaho National Laboratory, which, as you know, is our nation's premier nuclear energy research laboratory. We have not realized the real potential of nuclear energy for decades. It was often said (at my workplace) that we will not appreciate the need for this technology until the brownouts and the cost of energy overcomes our fear of nuclear power. I think the time is near, and the sad part is that it takes years to permit and build new nuclear power plants.
As a retiree, I am constantly reminded of my family's vulnerability to the rising cost of living. Fuel prices continue to force the costs of many of the staples of our life higher and those of us on fixed incomes have no recourse to mitigate this change to our lives. It takes little imagination to realize that our food chain, and everything connected to fossil fuels will be affected by this. Energy independence is crucial for our nation's prosperity and to our children's legacy as leaders of the free world. I am sure each of us has a vision for our future retirement and the quality of life that we have spent a lifetime planning for. We depend on the leadership in the congress and our nation's administration to preserve our future economic security. This includes prioritizing the things we must do to avoid threats to our economy such as is occurring with this fuel crisis. Your help and those of your colleagues in congress is needed, now more than ever, and I support your efforts to make a difference.
R. E., Blackfoot.
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Yes, high energy costs are impacting my family quite significantly. I grew up in Idaho and convinced my hubby and family to move to Idaho about five years ago. We plan on living here forever. We sold our house in Oregon and moved to Ashton into our family's old farm house. My hubby works in Jackson, WY because he only has three years left before he qualifies for his pension. Gas was approximately $1.50 when we moved here. It is now $4.15 and rising. Our house is heated with an old oil furnace that my dad was so proud of. Oil costs have also gone sky high, too. Our savings for purchasing a house are now exhausted. My son did not get rehired for his job because the local farmer he worked for last year cannot afford to transport him, and he does not drive yet, and it is too far to bike.
We are very close to my hubby having to sleep over in his car in the work parking lot. This is not the best situation as he has to use a CPAP machine and has three of our daughters also driving to work with him. I try to cut down on gas, but with eight kids and living in a very small town, we do have to drive 30-60 minutes to a bigger town at times, to see the eye doctor, for allergy treatments, etc. I do use my daughter's small Subaru as much as possible but it does not hold all the children, so someone has to stay home or we take the van that holds everyone but costs twice as much.
Our house savings has been exhausted as we have been forced to draw on our savings for basic necessities. I am very frugal person--I feed the ten of us on $100 a week. We rarely buy new clothing, and my kids are not spoiled with computer games, and modern toys. We garden, sew, and whatever it takes it make it work. I have stopped doing WIC, even though we qualify and I am considering stopping the free school lunches due to allergy and other concerns.
This is my story thus far, and I am happy to share. I am aggressively seeking way to cut our costs and keep my family's needs met.
VICKIE, Ashton.
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That energy bill was a great idea. Higher gas prices mean less driving. My wife and I drive very little and have since that mess in Katrina. The only solution to this ridiculous oil situation is to tax the oil companies and use the money for new renewable energy technologies. The prices will go up anyway due to avarice. We do not need cheap oil; we need no oil!
UNSIGNED.
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While I favor alternative energy sources, I am hesitant to support energies that will ultimately lead to another calamity, such as nuclear power. If our air cannot handle the particulates from petroleum, imagine creating a system dependent on nuclear and the vast amount of highly hazardous waste that it creates.
Support of renewable and alternative energies, increased funding for public transit and rail, and promotion of local businesses rather than dependence on goods that have to be trucked in on diesel fueled trucks is essential.
Thank you for your time, consideration and thoughts on these matters,
JENAH.
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Thanks for putting this as one of your high priorities. High energy prices are extremely affecting the way we have to budget our money since rising gas prices affect the cost of shipping food and clothing those commodities are rising in prices. High gas prices are affecting everything that one would want to buy. We have to cut back in what we buy for food. What our food budget could once buy, it does not buy the same amount of food now for the same amount of money. Therefore, we have to cut back in other areas like medical visits, travel to family, clothes, and electronic gadgets. Not only are we dealing with rising gas prices, but we are dealing the increased cost of living in our own home by paying more taxes and utility fees. It just seems to be hitting us all at once, and Congress does not seem to be doing anything about it. I hear a greater concern for health care insurance, but that is not what is breaking the bank right now in the average family it is the high rising gas prices. It is going to put our country in a great financial bind. My family still has enough of what we need to get by, but that is because my husband works more than 50 hours a week to make ends meet.
I think that our first priority should be in investing in domestic energy possibilities so we do not have to depend so much on the foreign market for our supply and then nuclear power (although I am concerned about long time waste that is created by nuclear power).
SHARI, Idaho Falls.
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My request for you is to pursue legislation that opens up more areas of the US to oil and gas exploration. We need more secure supply, and that means drilling in areas we control.
JIM.
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In a way, the high energy costs may be the one thing that forces the majority of Americans to wake up and demand action from our government. Since I have been voting (1980), I have heard time and time again that we need an ``energy policy''. To date, all we have is a lot of talk with little to no action on any policy. I believe that Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush1, Clinton and Bush2 have all talked about an energy policy. They always set the timetable for doing something long after they have left office knowing full well that nothing will be accomplished.
The best thing that could happen is for gas to go to $5-$7 per gallon because, at this level, Americans are going to demand action. No more talk. No more promises. Action. It is really sad to see that all branches of our government have really dropped the ball in so many areas.
We have the Senate holding hearings on steroids in baseball, on whether the NCAA BCS Bowl system is fair, and so on. In the meantime, the national debt is sky rocketing, we have millions of illegals living here, and we pretend that BCS and steroids are important.
We have undeveloped and undrilled deposits here in the US that we cannot touch due to environmentalists. Instead we send billions of dollars overseas to countries who pretend to be our friends.
History repeats itself all the time. We are following the same path that Rome followed. Have we not learned anything? Is our Senate any different from the Roman Senate? Time will tell but so far the future does not look bright.
D.
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This was to be the year that my husband and I were to become debt free. We have been like other people, living paycheck to paycheck. We will soon own our home free and clear, we have no car payments, and are only luxuries are DirecTV and internet.
I do not work due to cost of daycare and driving distance the amount coming in compared to going out it would not add to our income and most likely cost us.
My husband makes approximately $16 an hour and usually at this time of year works 60 to 70 hours per week. He drives 30 miles one way to work. Due to the rising fuel prices, no one is doing any road improvements which, in turn, the company has had to reduce the hours their employees work, trying to keep them at 40 hrs per week. The closest grocery store from our home is 35 miles. For nearly two years, we have, due to fuel prices, made no unnecessary trips to town for groceries, we even put off needed dental and medical appointments because what money we have extra, goes into gas for my husband to get to work.
I agree in conservation and alternative fuels, but that is for the future, not help for what people are going through now. We cannot go out and buy a new hybrid car, and most people in this state are in the same boat, or worse they are sinking. The cycle is this: gas and groceries are at an all-time high, you cannot afford the gas, you cannot go to the store, people spend less, businesses have to lay off or close leaving more people out there, to lose their homes, cars and no way to feed and clothe their children, and what about those whose only income is Social Security. Do you know anyone that can live on $600 a month? That is what my mother is trying to live on, her Medicaid and food stamps were taken away, her rent from Idaho Housing went from $60 to $153 per month due to what I feel is a clerical error that no one can seem to help her with, her phone shut off because she was late, which she cannot turn back on she cannot afford the fees. We cannot help her, so what is she to do?
I am sorry, but I feel that most people in our government right now have had it too easy and do not see what is happening, and I bet any of them live in a 30-year-old mobile home and are proud of it. They have forgotten what it is like to struggle or ever knew what it is to juggle everyday needs. I pray to God that my son, now 5, will someday be able to get a higher education. I do not see it happening right now.
Thank you for reading this, and giving me a chance to speak my mind.
KARI, Jerome.
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I read your message: Thank you. I recently drove to the Idaho State Convention at Sandpoint. I have only good things to say about the highway 95. It was a joy to drive and is probably why I was able to drive to Sandpoint and return with a quarter tank of gas left. Of course I had tires checked for pressure so that may have helped. My complaint such as it is--my car is a 2004 Buick I had asked sometime ago about using Ethanol additive in it, I was told by the dealer's mechanic that I should use regular gasoline as the engine is not set for ethanol use. So I made a point to do that and usually bought Chevron. Imagine my reaction when I discovered all gas stations are required to use 10% Ethanol. I was told that might require more frequent fuel filter change. Of course I have no idea if using ethanol improved my mpg on trip to Sandpoint, which is a possibility. The gauge on my car said I averaged 23mpg.
I, of course, definitely support drilling for oil in the Gulf States and I do not think it would be a disaster environmentally to drill and start more drilling and production in Alaska! I visited Fairbanks and also saw the pipeline and I understand the caribou used some of the structures as posts to scratch their backs.
Good luck with the energy crisis! The cost to suppliers is definitely a worry that affects everyone.
MARIE.
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In a global energy market in which we now live, we need to stop complaining about the current reality of high gasoline prices and limit our energies to the real problem of how to facilitate an increase in our domestic energy production, refining capabilities, and alternative energy research. The priority in Congress should be to help resolve our current energy dependence by attempting to eliminate the restrictions to exploration (i.e. ANWR, etc. etc.) and the production of other domestic energy sources? Why do we continue to focus on the current hardships caused by the present day cost of gasoline instead of looking at ways to facilitate pragmatic long term solutions to the problem!
RON, Boise.
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I would like to tell you how the high gas prices are affecting me and my wife. I am 76 years old, retired, and have a chronic heart and lung disease. We live in Salmon. Salmon, being a small town does not have a hospital to care for major heart and lung disease. The nearest hospital that has facilities for major heart and lung is Missoula, Montana, about 160 miles north of Salmon, making it a 320-mile round trip. My car gets 27 miles per gallon, making it about 12 gallons per trip. Today, in Salmon, gas costs $4.23 per gallon (and I am sure it will continue to go up); that is about $50 per trip in gas alone. Between the two of us. we have to make the trip to Missoula approximately 20 times per year. That equates to about $1,000 for gas alone. That smarts.
Please do what you can to stop this senseless rise in energy prices. We have the resources here in our own country. Let us start using them. Drill for oil; use nuclear; mine coal; we are smart enough to do this sensibly. Do it now.
J. C., Salmon.
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Even if we opened up Alaska and any other likely source of oil, I doubt very much it would bring the price of oil down. Until we get rid of corporate government, nothing we are presently experiencing is likely to change, certainly not sharing stories of hardship.
JOHN.
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My husband is retired, and I am only able to work part-time. It has put a great deal of stress on us. When we did retirement planning, we planned for cost of living, i.e., food, electric, water, gas, but never could we have imagined that we would under budget our gas costs. This country has the opportunity to resolve this issue. As other costs are also rising, medical care, food, etc, this is one area that the government can step in and resolve and help our not only our economy, but also their fellow Americans. It is our congressmen duty to take care of this issue, if not, then who is going to take care of all the people who cannot afford the gas to get to work and do not have access to mass transit or cannot afford it. Do tell.
SIGNE.
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