December 9, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10833 

the land and on the shelf does not speak well 

for our collective intelligence. 

Unleash the sleeping tiger of free-enterprise. 

RON. 

Drilling for oil now is our only hope. It is 

out there; it is what we need; go get it! I am 

encouraged this morning that John McCain 

wants to drill off shore again. All of the conserving, all of the money being invested in 

testing new technologies is not going to cut 

it and it is no substitution for what we really 

need: OIL! Wind and electricity are not going 

to power my car or the many other things 

that need it. Depending on oil from the Middle East is shameful. Please tell Congress to 

allow production in full force offshore California and in the Gulf, Alaska and in the 

mid-west now and start repairing the old refineries and building new ones. It needs to be 

on the fast track; in other words do not take 

years writing an environmental impact 

statement. It can be done safely and with 

minimum impact to the environment. 

It is very sad that I am no longer able to 

travel to visit my 78-year-old Mom in northern Arizona, a trip I/we used to make twice 

a year. This is distancing families more than 

ever. I may never see my other family members in California or Minnesota again unless 

gas prices drop. I am a 56-year-old widow 

struggling to make ends meet. I have had to 

give up driving any long distances. I only 

drive for local errands. It is a struggle now 

to pay heat, electric and food bills and it will 

only get worse. But heck, my family and 

friends are in the same boat; they cannot afford to visit me either. 

I am sadly watching the elderly and disabled attempting to walk or ride bicycles to 

the grocery store that should not. I am seeing empty shelves at the grocery stores and 

other merchants because the trucks have not 

come in or are not coming as often. This is 

nuts. 

My husband admired you; if he were here 

now, he would be the one who had a lot to 

say about the current situation America is 

in. You met him on a boat in Lake Coeur 

d’Alene quite awhile ago. He had much 

knowledge of our current situation as far 

back as the 1970s and predicted as did many 

others our current situation. He died of a 

brain tumor in 1999. His resume included 

work in Libya, Alaska, the Gulf, offshore 

Santa Barbara working for Baroid, and over 

30 years of government service with the U.S. 

Geological Survey and Bureau of Land Management. 

CAROL, Moscow. 

In response to your energy prices email— 

the increase for gasoline has been tremendous for my husband and me. We both are 

senior citizens, but still have jobs and go to 

work every day. Bob is a realtor and spends 

$100 minimum per week. My cost is $50 plus, 

even though I do not use my vehicle for 

work. We live about 14 miles from our offices, and we do not have economy vehicles. 

We probably could not even sell our cars 

right now. I work on commission and my 

paycheck for last month was $256; that barely covers the $200 plus for gasoline. Both of 

these businesses are down right now. 

We totally agree with your thinking on 

this—keep up the good work. Why cannot 

others get it?? 

CHERYL, Coeur d’Alene. 

Feeling the pinch is an understatement. I 

am very eco-friendly as much that can be afforded; however, when you weigh in the costs 

for the current prices, it makes it close to 

impossible to save to afford to be more ecofriendly. Thus creating a further pinch on 

my way of life. We are setting back those in 

our economy and simply making it more difficult to do business. From my aspect, I 

oversee four hotels in the area and not only 

is airline travel being down causing an issue 

to our hotels but the overall cost of operations has risen. These operational costs 

have been from the increase in food cost 

many sur-charge related to fuel, to a higher 

rate of pay to incentive employees to drive 

that car to work every day, the list can go 

on. 

Personally, I am a single mother and all 

the costs of my child are that for me to provide. The smallest incremental raise in cost 

creates stress in our way of life. We have to 

wage out some other wise ‘‘affordable’’ fun 

things to do if driving is (and as I love to see 

Idaho) involved. My gas costs have nearly 

doubled, food is costing more, and there are 

limited options other than facing these and 

dealing with them at face value. I would love 

to see there be more alternate fuel options so 

that we are using only what is necessary 

when it comes to oil. 

I support anything you are doing that will 

make the world a more friendly environment 

and reusable environment; my greatest hope 

would be for this evolution to also allow 

more of my money to stay in my home. 

Shawna. 

Thank you for the opp. Our small business 

is fairly new, started in 2005, when we 

changed venue from a motel. It has never 

been a million dollar enterprise, but we did 

not expect that and did not need that; just 

hoped it was something we could hand to our 

kids when we retire. Every time the gas 

prices went up, business went down. Then 

the foreclosures started. Now many of our 

customers are gone. Some are even going 

back to California! We are now contemplating bankruptcy. The energy costs are a 

large part of the reason why. We have a 

small second hand store where we also sell 

hand crafted furniture and our pottery. 

When someone comes into our store with a 

LIST! we know things are going down the 

tube. This is the kind of store people normally spend time browsing in. Very few customers can afford to just shop anymore. 

They are struggling to buy gas to even go to 

town, and to buy groceries. I suggest an investigation into hydrogen power. It was 

going well in 1978, then no more was heard 

about it. We are promoting it to anyone who 

will listen, and I am going to spend time investigating; not just the feasibility of it, but 

the how. It is now a definite option. 

Thank you for listening, 

NANCY, Priest River. 

I just want to say that as a Disabled American, I feel the pain!! My wife of many years 

works for the City of Boise while I am disabled and we are no longer moving forward. 

She works hard at the Water Treatment 

plant everyday and I battle my conditions 

equally hard and yet as I fight, the more it 

costs, electricity for my oxygen machine, copayments to doctors offices, procedures, 

medications . . . etc. Now with this INFLATION hitting, we are feeling the effects of 

$4.00 gas, higher utilities cost across the 

board, food prices and on and on. 

See the thing is, we have been preparing 

for this for awhile now. Back in 2004 we traded in our 1994 Ford Taurus SHO @ 16 MPG 

Premium Fuel for a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid 

that has gotten us to a real 40 MPG regular 

fuel. About the same time we moved closer 

to Sandra’s work to save on daily driving. 

We even went to riding trikes to the Pharmacy and the grocery store, and my wife additionally rides hers to work now a couple of 

times a week or so . . . and yet we are using 

savings and have even cut back on putting 

funds that is matched by the City of Boise. 

We will be in trouble in a few years unless 

something changes. I do not know what our 

government is going to do, but I believe that 

if they gave some sort of incentive to buyers 

to get into hybrids as well as the new clean 

burning diesel ala Europe. We could improve 

the oil situation, we have cut our usage by 

more than you would believe. Drilling up 

north is happening next door in Canada, 

what is up with us? We need to be making 

changes that the rest of the plant sees. We 

could help the USD to bounce back some and 

that would help reduce the cost of gas. 

f 

PETE. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS 

125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

FREDERICK NEWS-POST 

∑ Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, today 

I wish to honor and congratulate the 

Frederick News-Post on its 125th anniversary. On October 15, 1883, a printing 

company in Frederick, MD, published 

the first edition of The News, an 

evening newspaper that reported about 

local happenings. In 1916, this printing 

company purchased another local 

paper, the Frederick Post, which it 

continued to offer in the mornings. 

After almost a century of circulating 

these two editions, the company chose 

to merge the two papers in 2002 and 

offer just a morning paper that included not only great local news stories but also important national coverage. 

The Frederick News-Post circulates 

over 11 million papers a year and employs over 200 people. The company 

also includes FNP Printing & Publishing, a commercial printing venture 

as well as an Internet division called 

FNP Interactive. The Frederick NewsPost is a vital part of the Frederick 

community, and I am so proud that 

this Maryland newspaper has been successful for the past 125 years. I hope 

that it continues to bring the news to 

families around the State for 125 

more.∑ 

f 

MESSAGES FROM THE PRESIDENT 

Messages from the President of the 

United States were communicated to 

the Senate by Mr. Williams, one of his 

secretaries. 

f 

EXECUTIVE MESSAGES REFERRED 

As in executive session the Presiding 

Officer laid before the Senate messages 

from the President of the United 

States submitting sundry nominations 

which were referred to the appropriate 

committees. 

(The nominations received today are 

printed at the end of the Senate proceedings.) 

f 

MESSAGE FROM THE HOUSE 

ENROLLED BILL SIGNED 

At 11:14 a.m., a message from the 

House of Representatives, delivered by 


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