[Pages S2468-S2469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES

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. While energy prices have dropped in recent
weeks, the concerns expressed remain very relevant. To respect the
efforts of those who took the opportunity to share their thoughts, 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:

My husband and I are semi retired but the figure of $200
way off the mark even for us. We do work part of the year but
are not doing so at this time. We live rural and have to
travel for groceries, building supplies. When we work all of
this involves a minimum of 40 miles each way, not including
the around town mileage. We have 20 acres, with a small
tractor to keep weeds under control which the county urges
all of us to do. We also have a large lawn to mow. Our fuel
bill for the month of May was $400. The tractor has a tank of
10 gallons, and that alone costs $40 per tank. We are trying
to save a bit by purchasing dyed fuel but, by the time you
travel to that, you have eaten up your savings. The point is
we have very little choice on our fuel issues. We do not go
to town on a whim and really never have as long as we have
been here (since 1973). The price of food is skyrocketing
also in the rural areas. We have a small grocery store in a
small town by us, but they have fuel issues, too. We would
like to see nuclear power sources and wind generators
multiply. Our daughter does websites and she has a customer
that has a wind power source for sale for each single home.
However, at this point, it is somewhat expensive,
approximately $5,500. Although in the past, nuclear power has
had a few hiccups so even we were not in favor of it. I
subscribe to Popular Science Magazine and it is my
understanding they are very close or have reached the ability
to neutralize the waste. However, I have not heard any news
about it from the media or official science reports.
Fixed income as well as families and singles cannot get pay
raises that equals the cost of living in reality. We dealt
with this our last years at work. Companies have their
stockholders that have to be kept and for the last eight
years of our jobs we steadily lost money from cost of living
that the government adjusted to be 3% or less when in the
blue collar world did not equate to that. Fuel along doubled
and what cost us $30 per week for work fuel jumped within 3
months to $60 per week and kept traveling upward since.
Property taxes, auto and home insurance also have risen but
employers went with the government figures. I would get 25
cent per hour raise. It brought home approximately $4 and
change per week. It did not cover any of our rising expenses.
Anything under $1.00 does not even show anything much on a
take home check. So there needs to be some way for an
employer with all their overheads to realize this and perhaps
hire CEOs, CFOs and other company officials that make a
decent wage without the super perks they have received for
the last 25 years. Corporate waste is rampant and should be
addressed somehow in the near future so the frontline
employees can afford today's fuel prices and not be stressed
daily by how to make ends meet. Sorry I got off the edge here
but it is all one big picture which is why the energy costs
are a frontline problem with this. We still have many elderly
people who do not have enough to live as is. With this energy
impact, I do not know how they can make it. So please keep up
your vigil. We need to open up the fields in Alaska and not
be selling it to other countries at this point. [When] my
husband and I work, which involves truck driving, we see what
is happening along the routes we travel. The distress in the
citizens and the oil wells being developed and the ones that
are not running.
Darlene, Spirit Lake.
____

Thank you for the opportunity to communicate in this
fashion my family's challenges with the high cost of energy
and our thoughts. I travel a great deal all over America and,
as part of my job, I work closely with many convenience store
operators around our great country. We own a Dodge Durango 4-
wheel drive SUV. It is great because it provides the safety
my family needs during the winter and the space we need for
all the stuff we need to transport when you have two young
children. As you no doubt remember with your own family, a
nine-month-old baby [needs] a lot of baggage when he
travels--car seats, strollers, etc. The daughter wants her
bike when visiting the grandparents, her books, and spare
clothes, etc. The bad thing is it only gets 13 miles to the
gallon on average and, like most families, we did not buy it
with cash but financed it which means we owe more on it than
we can sell it for. In fact, in this market, many car dealers
will not even take an SUV in on trade. So we have no choice
but to bear the burden of high gas prices for the foreseeable
future. We cannot just throw the car away and run out and buy
a new fuel-efficient SUV which is selling at a premium that,
frankly, even in today's market, does not even pencil out as
a good investment by my calculations. Of course, this is not
the only part of the story of how high energy costs have
impacted our family but the part those like Thomas Freidman
never take into consideration when promoting even higher
costs through taxation, cap and trade, and government
manipulation of the market.
What should Congress do?
Do not do as Congresswoman Maxine Waters suggested in
Committee and take over the oil companies. The markets are
working just fine, but what they reflect is all the inaction
and obstacles that have burdened the supply and demand
elasticity of the commodities markets be it oil or corn, etc.
Again, taxing is not a solution. We should be working to
lower taxes for everyone. Not redistributing it. Not to
manipulate markets. Fuel taxes should be what they need to be
to maintain our infrastructure. We should be encouraging
efficiencies in the market place with our tax code and
policies.
The fact is we need to make it easier to drill now. We need
to make it easier to refine more fuel now. We need to add
capacity to distribute that fuel to the marketplace now. We
need to expand our reserves so we have a cushion when natural
disasters occur. We need to do something about all the
boutique fuels that cause unnatural shortages every spring
and fall (winter blend, summer blend, smog blend, this blend,
that blend impact refinery efficiency). We need to do
something about credit card interchange fees. We need to do
everything we can to encourage efficiency.
And, of course, we need to encourage conservation, public
transportation where possible, more not less airports and
routes, and alternative even renewable sources of energy.
Well, that is my 415 cents. Thank you.
Robert, Twin Falls.
____

I find it odd as the greatest country in the world we are
lagging in becoming energy self-sufficient. France, for
instance, runs and has, for many years, ran its country off
nuclear power. How is it that we cannot do this? If our
country was powered off of nuclear power, consider the
substantial reduction in oil consumption for the east coast.
They are paying to heat their houses with heating oil, more
expensive than our natural gas. Drilling for more oil will
help but we need a bigger and better solution. Corn is not
the answer, either. As the government pushes alternative
fuels (ethanol), the price of food rises. Also we do not get
the power out of ethanol that we get out of traditional fuel
so MPG on our cars drop. So we need more ethanol. It is a
very ridiculous cycle. Nuclear, wind, hydrogen, oil--all
these options need to be brought to the table now. Waiting
until after the election will not work. We all know as soon
as that election is over the focus will be on mid-term
elections and pandering to voters. Let us get it done now.
Does our government really care about our future, our
children? Let us act on this now before these same promises
are being made to our children's children.
Unsigned.
____

It is time that we get off our cans and get aggressive in
drilling for oil on our own soil. I am tired of our country
being held hostage to foreign interests and values when it
comes to our own energy needs. High fuel costs have had a
significant negative effect on my business and my ability to
grow my business. Please do all you can to get us out of this
crisis.
Craig, Eagle.
____

It is time to reign in the market speculation in oil and it
is products. There is no shortage of gasoline or oil. There
are no lines at gas stations! It is gouging, plain and
simple. Stop protecting the oil companies! Windfall profits
tax on all oil-related products of at least 50%. Apply the
windfall tax funds to alternative energy research that have
no connection to the oil industry. Make it a modern day
Apollo project. Repeal oil industry tax breaks. Apply a 100%
tax rate on any salary over 10 million per year.
The economy is collapsing while [the Administration does
nothing]. We own a small

[[Page S2469]]

business; we want support for the middle class. The rich need
no help; let them earn a living for a change.
Mike, Moscow.
____

I am glad to see someone taking a stand that actually has a
chance to be heard. I am glad that we are going to try and
get some relief to the gas prices, but I think we should also
be looking into the contributing factors that are causing
such a demand for fuel.
I live in Meridian and must commute to Boise every day for
my job. I confronted my employer (a local utility company)
regarding other options to having to commute to Boise every
day when the air quaility was getting so bad like 4-day work
week, telecommuting, etc. and was told it was not an option.
My son is 5 years old and has asthma. Every time the air
quality gets bad, so does his health. Recently, with the
gigantic increase in fuel prices and the demand of fuel, I
confronted my employer again about other options that could
not only help with the air quality, but help contribute to
decreasing the demand of fuel; again, I was again turned
down. To me it seems that not only should we be going after
congress to help relieve the outrageous cost of fuel, but we
also need someone to tell employers to do what they can to
start helping with the problem instead of contributing to it.
Thank you for what you are doing and I hope a resolution is
on the horizon.
Nichole, Meridian.
____

I received your email asking us to share our stories about
high energy costs so here goes. We live 5 miles from the
nearest grocery store and town. This means that every time we
get in the car, the round trip is a minimum of 10 miles. If
my husband and I both go into town a couple of times a day,
and only go to the nearest town, we drive a minimum of 40
miles a day and that is without running errands. going to
another town or anything like that. When all is said and
done, it is much more like 60 miles a day. We also live in
snow country and must have 4-wheel drives so get about 15 mpg
which means at $4 per gallon, we spend about $16 just to get
to town and back which is almost $500 per month. It is
insane.
What is more insane is the idea that we can explore and
produce our way out of this mess. The US consumes about 26%
of the world's oil but only has about 2% of the world's oil
reserves. We would have to increase our reserves and
production 12 fold to cover today's demand and that is never
going to happen. The price of oil shot up when it became
clear we were going to invade Iraq--financial markets hate
uncertainty and invading another country is a big
uncertainty. As the war has dragged on and as our President
has talked about taking action against Iran, oil prices have
soared higher. The best thing our nation could do to lower
the price of oil would be to get out of a country we had no
business invading in the first place and start spending
more, much much more, on the plentiful wind, solar and
geothermal we have been blessed with.
Americans want this, the people of Idaho want this, I only
hope Senator Crapo is listening. I ask him to do the only
sane thing and think outside the oil box.
Leslie.
____

I live with a husband who makes his money his. When I had a
job, I had an income and contributed to the groceries. It has
already been hard for me because I had been on medical leave
for over a year from a job I had for over six years that paid
a little over $11 an hour. During this time on medical leave,
I could not draw any income because of some ``catch 22''
about if my doctor released me to go back to work with
limitations, and my job did not allow me to come back to
work, I did not apply for short-term disability or assistance
is what I was told. After my leave was exhausted and my
employer said they did not have a job for my physical
limitations, I was let go, and had to pay more money for
COBRA. Last fall I had enrolled in BSU with student loans
that barely cover school fees, books, and travel expenses as
it is, from Mountain Home to Boise and the Air Base. I was
doing very well for the first semester, but money was very
tight then. I ended up using my savings, my tax refund, and
my retirement from the company that let me go, just to pay
the bills. I found out that I have a rheumatoid arthritis,
osteo arthritis, spondylitis, depression, I take lots of
medications and I have had back surgery, neck surgery and I
am in pain most of the time. I am still waiting for my
disability hearing because it takes so long to get it
scheduled and I am down to maxed out credit cards and $150
dollars in the bank. My husband wants me to leave him because
my medical bills are too expensive. I have two classes this
second twelve weeks at the Air Base in Mountain Home that
will end on June 30th. I do not know if I will continue with
my BSU degree because I cannot afford to drive to Boise
anymore. And if I do not get an income I may end up on the
street. I cannot pay back my credit cards that I used to pay
for living expenses and medical bills and prescriptions. They
are maxed out. I am going to have to sell my things to get
by.
To the Congressmen and Senators of this great country: Why
are we so hesitant to get on the ball and do something about
this crisis that filters down to more than gas? We cannot
afford to live on what we have got and now we have to pay
more?
While I am frustrated with my present circumstances, I know
God will take care of me. What I am really worried about is
this country and our leaders taking us down the path of
destruction. Our country needs leaders who will demonstrate
true authority, not bickering about what party did what or
who is better for our country. We need to put parties aside,
put aside differences, fall on our knees and ask God Almighty
to forgive this county its many sins and his forgiveness and
guidance.
[Please do your best to] to solve this crisis. I think we
should drill for oil, build refineries, make alternatives
available to the poor working public, use cooking oil instead
of gasoline, use sugar cane like they do in South America,
use wind power in windy places like Mountain Home, use
geothermal resources, solar power, anything that is greener
and healthier. [But please do it now and do not leave the
rest of us for fend for ourselves in this terrible economy!]
We are tired of the blame game. Someone do something and stop
filibustering and stalling progress. [Such efforts stop our
country from solving the problems we face.]
I know I went off on this a little long, but again, I am
totally frustrated with inactivity and red tape. Thank you
for all you do, but please remember the people who you work
for whether they voted you in or not.
Crystal, Mountain Home.
____

Something needs to be done. Prices keep going up
everywhere. Not only is it affecting how much I spend in gas,
but my grocery bill is outrageous now; Also, Idaho Power has
just raised their rates. I have three children, which
includes a baby in diapers. It is getting to the point where
we can barely afford anything. It is really scary for us. We
never have had much money, and one of the things I use to do
with the kids was to go on ``drives'' just to get out of the
house. We would go to Chevron and get drinks, then drive to
different areas in Boise that we had not seen before and
listen to music. Now, we cannot even do that. Prices will
keep going up because they can, and people like us are going
to really ``pay'' for it in the long run. It makes me sick.
It is not like we are not trying to make it in life. I am a
student at Boise State and I will be a Respiratory Therapist.
We are not people looking for handouts. We are a family not
only trying to get by, but we want to live, too We want to
enjoy life also. It upsets me when even the little things
that we were able to do are now a luxury. Something has got
to be done. The reality is that there is really people who
cannot afford the rise in prices (for gas and everything
else). There has got to be some sort of stopping point. The
saying,'' The rich will get richer and the poor will get
poorer'' sounds more like the truth to me every day.
Hopefully, you can represent the families and the people who
are being affected by this.
S.

____________________