[Pages S4507-S4508]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH ENERGY PRICES

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 1,200, 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:

I own a small construction business and, on the surface,
high prices do hurt my bottom line; however, that is not such
a bad thing. I have always been conscious about my personal
and worldwide energy use, but the fast rate of price increase
has made me even more, especially about my driving. My
driving efficiency has increased, and my total mileage for
the year has decreased several thousands of miles. This is a
good thing especially when I consider that everybody I am
talking to is thinking the same way. Statistics say Americans
are driving less; that is a good thing. It is good the people
get humbled and remember that every bit of energy and every
material object we use was made in the natural world and
refined using human intelligence; there are no freebies.
Americans need to plan a future without oil for energy. For
some reason, it is taboo to mention solar energy and subsidy
in the same sentence. Solar is the best hope for continuous
energy yet nobody wants to subsidize the fledgling industry.
Farmers and ethanol are subsidized, though they hate to admit
it; the coming second nuclear program will be fully
subsidized though they attempt to account around it. Even the
fossil fuel industry is subsidized, among other ways, by
being protected by the U.S. military. (Oil has caused all the
havoc in the Middle East, so Iraq and Afghanistan and all the
other military deployments acts of security for big oil).
Hundreds of billions go to these fruitlessly revolving
enterprises. Let us pay to get a nationwide solar plan fully
off the ground. Imagine if every single house south facing
roof was solar panels and all flat topped roofs were solar
panels, we could power the entire country without having to
build another structure. Subsidize and organize turning the
entire fleet of cars over to solar/battery/electric cars. It
would work. Ethanol is a joke, nuclear is a waste, wind is
like putting high rise buildings far into the countryside,
coal and gas and hydro could be back up to solar; to even the
load.
Pike, Nampa.
____

Our family has been working to get out of debt and have
breathing room to finally start saving for retirement; but
with the price of fuel going up daily, there is no way. In
fact we are sinking deeper in debt. We have to really
struggle with going to watch the grandchildren play ball or
buy groceries. We both have to drive quite a distance to our
work each week and now feel trapped. We love our home, but
cannot afford the commute, but with the housing market and
fuel costs, we cannot sell either! So we are still forced to
commute, going straight to where we stay when we go down for
our work and then our jobs and back again.
We have always been a nation of integrity, of a backbone,
fueled by necessity. If our government will get out of the
way and let her people do what we need to do to be self-
sufficient again, we will all be better off. It is so sad
that so many people think the only way we can make it is if
government controls, but when government controls we lose as
is shown by the dropping dollar and high fuel prices. We have
our own fuel and our own ingenuity, let us use it and refine
it.
Nancy.
____

You may not want my input on the high energy prices,
because I see a lot of good coming from them. For one thing,
the air is a lot cleaner. Also, I would assume there are
fewer car accidents/deaths due to fewer cars on the roads.
People are improving their health because they are out there
walking, bicycling, etc. And I see them reaching out to help
one another. It is also forcing people to be more creative in
the ways that they are dealing with the higher price of
products/food. They are asking themselves, is it something
they want or do they actually need it. They are fixing up the
things they have instead of throwing them away and filling up
the landfill. To me, I see the high energy prices as a change
of direction. A good change of direction.
As for all the money that is being accumulated, I think it
would be best used on developing alternate forms of energy--
wind, solar etc. Drilling for more oil is just going to
extend the inevitable. The oil is going to run out and, while
we are waiting for it to run out, we will continue to destroy
the planet and ourselves.
Kathleen.
____

Thank you for asking for my experience with the recent
rapid rise in gasoline/energy prices. My husband and I are in
our mid-fifties, and remember the first ``energy crisis'' in
the mid 1970s when fuel prices more than doubled but were
still way below one dollar. I purchased my first car during
that time--a Toyota Corolla that got 36 mpg. My husband
reserved his Dodge van which had much lower mileage for only
special needs trips; then he purchased a Ford small truck
(made by Mazda) which got 35 mpg. It travelled anywhere in
Montana the big 4 wheel drives did with some weight in the
bed in winter. We have only driven fuel efficient vehicles
since, except for the special trip farm/plow vehicles.
At this time I drive 36 miles round trip from our rural
home to work at IDL in Sandpoint. The 2000 Honda CRV gets 29
mpg with windows down and 27 mpg with windows up and internal
fan using heat or AC. I find I fill up every 10 days (extra
errands after work) and am spending perhaps an extra $1/day
on gas. Not a big deal.
My husband has telecommuted for his job as an electrical
engineer for the last 13 years so he rarely drives his
extremely fuel-efficient Honda Fit--a perfect commuter
vehicle for one person at 35+mpg. The little Kubota tractor
runs on diesel and uses perhaps 10 gallons per summer season.
We can absorb that. Our house is fully electric and electric
rates have stayed the same. Food at the grocery store has
been increasing for a year or two so we eat smarter and raise
our own meat.
By learning the lesson of the 1970s, we are not victim to
the fluctuations of the fossil fuel markets or contributing
greatly to the damages which result. Opening fragile and
deteriorating ecosystems to offshore drilling will not bring
down fuel prices--people are going to get used to them
anyway, as they always have. There are still plenty of large
expensive SUVs on the roads in Sandpoint.
If the country, led by Congress, would focus on funneling
money to alternative fuels and technologies to get off this
destructive bandwagon of the oil companies everyone could be
better off. Think about it and please start being a
constructive leader.
Jan.
____

The energy crisis is hitting us like almost everyone in
Idaho. It is not bad enough that we are paying outrageous
prices at the pump but we are also paying nearly twice what
we were this time last year at the grocery store. In Idaho we
do not have mass transit to utilize so we are stuck paying
for the gas at the pump.
I did have one idea to help Idaho rely less on oil for
power. My husband works at the INL and we have seen the
negative publicity about nuclear power. The Federal
Government owns all that land, as I understand it is about
the size of Rhode Island. Why not put wind mills up out
there? That would be free power after paying for the wind
mills. There is probably enough area for wind mills that they
could power the entire state of Idaho without the use of
water or oil. You could most likely find some kind of federal
grant to help fund the wind mills. It is just one idea for
you to consider.
Gayle.
____

I find it absolutely ridiculous that we cannot drill for
oil within the United States. I find it insane that we are
dependent on foreign sources. I find it ludicrous that
Congress refuses to do anything about the issue. I drive
forty miles to and from work each day. It is not much, but it
adds up quickly at $4.00+ a gallon. I cannot even pay at the
pump anymore, because the $75 limit on my credit card will
not fill my tank. I fully support the Drill Here, Drill Now,
Pay Less campaign. Please support any legislation that
increases our energy independence and gets the price down!
Dann, Rigby.
____

This last school year 07-08 I lived in Twin Falls and
attended the College of Southern Idaho. We had four girls
living in our apartment. The first semester two of us had
vehicles and two of my roommates received help from their
parents. In January, those two roommates moved out and the
two that moved in did not receive financial help from their
parents either. Because of rising fuel costs we mostly walked
to campus even when it was cold because we could not afford
gas (campus is a good 25-35 minute walk one way). And when we
did go somewhere like to the grocery store we car pooled. We
only ate out if it was a special occasion but even then most
of the time we had large dinner parties at our apt and we had
every one bring something. But we made it! However with the
rising cost of everything, partially due to the

[[Page S4508]]

rise in energy cost, this next year will be even harder. Yes,
we could take out student loans for more than just tuition
and books but having large amounts of borrowed money with no
guaranteed way to pay it back is scary!
On another note, my parents now live in Las Vegas, and I
have been here visiting for about a month and a half. My
father, who is now 57, has worked hard all his life for our
family. Now he works even harder. He gets up every morning to
leave the house by 5 a.m. so he can walk 15 minutes to catch
the bus and then walk for another 20 minutes to be at work by
6:30 a.m. so he can save a much-needed $200 a month in gas.
It takes him at least 1.5 hours longer each day to get to and
from work, that is, if the bus is not so full that he could
catch the first one home and would not have to wait for the
next one or the next one. He owns two older vehicles that are
diesel. When he bought them, diesel was cheaper than gas and
they both get 17-18 miles to the gallon. They got the best
mileage of SUVs and Trucks. However, even though they are
paid for and worth a bit of money, there is no longer a
market for vehicles like that so he cannot sell them for
close to what they are worth and so he cannot afford to buy
another vehicle with better gas mileage.
In my personal opinion, the United States government may
not be able to make energy cost go down but I feel that they
could make them more secure. The U.S. relies largely on oil
and gas from other countries. Most of those countries are in
some of the most unstable parts of the world, meaning our
energy supply is unstable. We need to bring it home. Yes,
there are countries such as Qatar that are stable and I think
we should still support them. However, for example, places
such as off the coast of Nigeria (Shell and U.S.-based
Chevron have had problems due to lack of stability in the
region) are not only unstable for reliance of supply but are
unstable for the environment. Even if energy cost will not
subside, most likely the stability of supply and price would
increase and the environment would be better off over all if
we were more self-reliant.
Emily, Twin Falls.
____

My wife, Michelle, and I send our heart-felt thanks for
your principled stand for sound energy policy based on
factual data and reality as opposed to the potentially
catastrophic positions taken by the Democrat party in
Congress, and its leadership.
We are solidly in favor of developing our own oil, coal and
natural gas resources to reduce or eliminate our dependency
on often hostile, foreign sources for the oil our economy
requires. We also support an aggressive nuclear power
program, and federal assistance to the nuclear power industry
in preventing the array of anti-nuclear, anti-power, anti-
development and anti-capitalist groups and their attorneys--
as well as the dozens of federal environmental agencies--from
endlessly delaying or preventing nuclear power facility
construction progress.
We agree that alternative energy sources need to be
developed by the private sector with as little federal
interference as possible, but believe it is misguided to
suggest that the oil industry should be spending their
capital for R&D into alternative ``fuels''. It seems to us
that actions to force the oil industry to do so is the
equivalent of federally mandating a private industry to
incorporate a profound conflict of interest into their
business plan. Logic indicates that such a federal action
would drive the oil industry to raise product prices to allow
their ongoing oil product R&D activities to continue, while
pursuing an alternative fuel R&D program for which the
industry and its shareholders would have little, if any,
business interest in advancing.
The X-Prize type concept Senator McCain recently mentioned
to encourage R&D to produce a new super battery for powering
vehicles is a concept I have had and shared frequently for
several years, although I question why the Senator's focus
was narrowed only to one type of energy, rather than offering
the prize for the first ``vehicle'' to meet defined safety,
performance, capability and efficiency standards and allow
the private competitors to pursue hydrogen fuel-cell
technology, compressed air and steam technologies, advanced
internal combustion engine technologies, even micro-nuclear
technologies or any combination of technologies, rather than
only electrical battery technologies. (Batteries for electric
cars might be a practical idea in some applications, but it
is doubtful if such R&D would benefit the oil burning
aviation or shipping industries.)
Anyway, we wanted to thank you for being a clear voice for
logical solutions to oil supply, and for having the courage
to stand against the knee-jerk reactionaries who are intent
on convincing the American public that industry greed, rather
than governmental interference, has caused the current spikes
and the price in oil-based consumer products.
Steve and Michelle, Melba.
____

What we really need to do to help our state and our country
is to drill, explore, experiment, expand, and adapt. Drill
more oil, explore more options for energy, and experiment
with new technology to make our state and our country more
independent and healthier. Our country needs to expand our
public transportation system and make it easier to use. That
is the biggest complaint about public transit. Finally, our
whole country needs to adapt and realize that this is not the
60s, 70s, 80s or 90s anymore. The economy is different. If we
can do this appropriately, then not only do we create jobs,
but then we can say we did it without foreign interference.
I am a big supporter of the SUV. But yesterday, I did the
hardest thing I could do. I turned in my SUV to the car lot I
purchased it from and am now riding the bus system in Boise.
It is not the most convenient since you have to make multiple
stops and sometimes go a little out of the way to get where
you are going, but for the price of two dollars a day, it is
worth it. I take two buses in the morning and walk a mile to
get to work every day. Every afternoon I walk a mile and take
two buses. I am a mom who manages to get it done. It just
takes commitment and help from our legislature to get the
nation going in the right direction.
Shasta, Boise.

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