S10942 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 11, 2008 

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: 

We farm close to 200 acres. We are young 

farmers (under 30), and we are trying to succeed in what seems to be a dying occupation. 

A huge blessing right now is that commodity prices are high. Yet ridiculously high 

fuel prices is causing our overhead to skyrocket. This year we are paying at least $70 

more per acre on fertilizer, due to the cost of 

fuel. Today I paid our most recent bill for 

farm diesel, at $4.409 per gallon. On ag diesel! 

Being farmers, we of course live outside of 

town, so driving into town is cost-preventive. We are wondering if there is any end in 

sight to the rise of fuel prices. Will we be 

able to continue farming if the costs keep 

rising? How high will they go? There are so 

many questions. There has got to be an alternative to being at the mercy of foreign oil 

suppliers. They are crippling our society. 

TROY and KRISTA, Caldwell. 

Thank you for providing this outlet to 

vent. I find it absolutely abhorrent that Venezuela and China can drill 60 miles off the 

Florida coast but the U.S. cannot because of 

the incredible power of the environmental 

lobby. (One Senator) a few weeks ago said 

that even if we drilled in ANWR, it would 

only affect the pump price of gas by a penny. 

Yet when the President went to visit Saudi 

Arabia, (that same Senator) said if the President could convince them to increase output 

of 1 million barrels a day, it should drop the 

price of gas by $.50. That is the same output 

potential from ANWR, and yet he and other 

obstructionists on Capitol Hill continue to 

get away with such duplicity and idiocy. If 

we had started drilling there in the ‘90s when 

it first passed Congress, we would now have 

more control over our own energy destiny. 

Instead, we continue to find ourselves over 

an Arab ‘‘barrel.’’ 

Energy is literally the fuel that drives our 

economy. It is imperative that we take control of our future by placing national interests ahead of the environmental extremists 

who exert such control over our nation. 

RICHARD, Pocatello. 

Thank you for the chance to tell you how 

the high energy prices have affected our family. I am a stay-at-home mom of two, ages 8 

and 6. My husband and I have a lot of family 

who lives in Utah who we use to travel and 

visit at least once a month. Due to the high 

gas prices, we are only able to travel down 

about every four months. We live just outside Idaho Falls and use to drive where we 

needed to go without much thought. Now my 

husband rides his bike to work and only 

drives if the weather is terrible, and the kids 

and I have to bike to run our daily errands. 

That would not concern me as much but the 

roads we have to travel are very busy and do 

not have bike lanes, sidewalks, or much of a 

shoulder so they are dangerous for us to ride 

on. The kids and I, when we have to bike, 

usually go about 10–15 miles round trip. 

I would like to see us be able to increase 

our own oil production and expand nuclear 

research. We need to be able to stand on our 

own and not be dependent on foreign oil especially from countries that are in constant 

turmoil and not friendly to the U.S. 

Thank you for taking the time to listen 

and for standing up for Idahoans. 

SHALEEN. 

This may be the perfect opportunity to 

stand up for market economics! We Americans are addicted to oil. The pain we are now 

feeling may just be the kick in the pants we 

need to get the collective will to do something about it. With gas so expensive, alternatives become much more attractive. If 

government must act, please do not sacrifice 

our last remaining wilderness, or oceans, or 

air, to satisfy our filthy addiction. Act to 

help us kick our dependence on this stuff 

that is causing so many of our problems. 

JAMES. 

With a continuing rise in energy prices, 

our family is not only effected at the gas 

pump but with an increase in grocery and 

utility bills as well. Because of the great distances between his clients, my husband 

drives over a 1000 miles a month for his 

work. This has put a tremendous amount of 

stress on the family budget. Our only hope 

before our family hits financial ruin is that 

the federal government will think more of 

the people they represent and less of special 

interest groups. 

REBECCA. 

We have let the environmental agenda 

highjack our country and many [conservatives] are allowing it to happen. If we do 

not start drilling in ANWR and using coal in 

place of petroleum, we are going to be in a 

world of hurt. Alternative energy sources are 

going to be great when they get here, but 

that is a generation away. As a country trying to stave off the jihadist and Latin dictators, we had better be self-dependent on 

our own energy. I hope Congress understands 

their [role] in this mess. How about a reduction in fuel taxes? If the American people 

continue to be pressed, they will react. There 

are unintended consequences that may be 

very surprising to some. Thanks for your 

service to Idaho. 

WADE. 

I have to travel 26 miles one way to work. 

With the price of gas, it does not pay for me 

to drive back and forth to work. I like my 

job but with everything else going up it 

would be cheaper for me to stay home. I 

make around $11 per hour and a tank of gas 

costs me about $50 to fill up a week. That is 

$200 a month that really bites. I do not know 

how long I can last without going in the hole 

and losing my home and cars. If it were not 

for my wife’s job, we would be on welfare or 

in the streets. Thanks for all your help. 

HENRY. 

My wife and I live in Idaho and work in 

Spokane Washington. We are part of a large 

group that must commute 35 mile one way 5 

or 6 days a week in order to pay our bills. My 

wife and I spend in excess of $500 per month 

in fuel just for transportation. This is an immense burden on us and will cause a ripple 

effect in our ability to do other things. 

The part that is most upsetting to us is 

that we all knew that energy prices would 

increase dramatically at some point and our 

elected officials chose to do nothing to prepare for it. For more than 25 years, Congress 

has chosen to ignore the need to force automakers to improve fuel economy and we 

have seen the U.S car manufacturers overtaken by the Japanese in part because the 

Japanese understood fuel mileage and reliability go hand in hand. Congress has consistently chosen to cut Amtrak funds and to 

not fund commuter rail and bus lines. 

The American public needs leadership. We 

do not need to have the latest poll results reread to us—again. This and other crises facing the U.S. will require leadership and sacrifice. Not Laissez-Faire political inaction. 

Mass transit, enforced CAFE standards, 

funding for alternatives in transportation, 

wind, solar and wave generation. No more 

subsidies for oil companies. These must be 

the priorities for Congress. 

Nuclear energy is not clean, it is not safe 

in the long term and it only lines the pockets of the major construction firms. 

Take a risk and lead from the front for a 

change. 

MARK. 

I have always ridden my bike or walked 

around town to do my errands, instead of 

using my vehicle. But when I have to work 15 

miles away, I have to drive, plus driving is 

part of my job. 

I can no longer drive to see my 93-year-old 

aunt; it would cost way too much. Yesterday, here in Hailey, a half tank of gas cost 

me over $45. I can no longer afford to drive 

to visit friends or go sightseeing. 

I now have to buy cheaper quality foods 

and have to eat a lot more starch than I desire to do. Forget beef! That is totally out of 

the question. 

I do not have air conditioning, so I am not 

using extra energy there. I am very careful 

about leaving lights, TVs, computers, etc. off 

when I am not using them. I run my washer 

at night and hang my clothes on the line 

outdoors in good weather, indoors on a drying rack in bad weather. And I have always 

done this; I have always tried to save energy, 

but I still get screwed because most people 

do not. 

I have recycled for many years, and yet 

there are many places in Idaho where recycling is not mandatory, so people do not 

bother doing it. This includes well-to-do, 

educated people, who just do not care, but 

would change their habits if it were the law. 

The price of everything has gone up, but 

my salary has gone down, and I am frequently out of work. These are not good 

times; pretty soon it will be a choice of gasoline or my medications. Alternative fuel vehicles should have been available for the 

general public at least 30 years ago. We all 

know the technology is there. 

Sign me as Disgusted in Idaho 

GLORIA, Hailey. 

We are changing our lifestyle! We are driving less. I simply have stopped all but the 

most absolutely necessary trips into town. 

We are moving appointments to coincide 

with the one day a week we go to town, including attending a Friday night worship 

service instead of making another trip into 

town on Sunday to attend. We have quit participating in activities such as extracurricular lessons and sports as the added 

driving necessary to do these activities is 

now unaffordable. 

December 11, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10943 

Increased energy prices are being reflected 

in increased food prices at the grocery store 

and at restaurants. We have stopped eating 

out at restaurants completely, and have 

made major adjustments to our eating habits, and to portions served during meals at 

home. We are going back to a simpler and 

less varied diet, and just trying to keep the 

staples like beans, rice, milk, bread, eggs 

and cheese. 

These changes we have made as a family do 

have an effect on our local economy, as we 

are holding on to more of our dollars, and 

not spending them in the community, the 

local community businesses suffer—it is noticeable because there are a lot of families 

like ours who are doing the same thing we 

are because we simply have to in order to 

survive. 

Our country is in a real predicament with 

the way the government has managed our 

agricultural production as it ties in with energy production. Ethanol is a poor solution 

as it requires an imbalance in our crop production, and now wheat prices are sky-high 

and production is behind. Corn uses a lot of 

water, which requires fuel to pump and irrigate with, so the net result of ethanol production to use is worse than with pure fossil 

fuel. 

I am not so concerned with the rising cost 

of fuel, as we truly do have lower fuel costs 

than most of the rest of the world, and there 

is nothing wrong with changing our lifestyles to be less consumptive of our resources. What does anger me is that fuel 

companies are recording record profits quarter after quarter, while the cost of fuel is 

sending our entire economy into a crisis, and 

causing our nation to be weakened as a 

whole. 

KRISTINE, Spirit Lake. 

First off, I would like to thank you for 

taking action on our country’s current energy crisis. I was starting to think that most 

of our country’s politicians were either simply ignoring the issue or were not taking it 

seriously. I am so glad to know that you are 

taking the initiative to look for answers to 

the problem, and I am even more impressed 

that you are actively looking for answers 

among the people you represent. This does 

more to win my [confidence] than any [action] could ever do. 

My husband and I enjoy traveling, and the 

rise in prices has definitely cut down on our 

travel this summer. We are staying home 

more often and eating out less. My husband 

is a student in the nursing program at ISU in 

Pocatello, and we are concerned about trying 

to pay for gas as he travels between Idaho 

Falls and Pocatello on a daily basis this fall. 

In a more specific example, my husband’s 

mother has Alzheimer’s disease, and since 

our time left with her is limited, we planned 

a family reunion this year to give her at 

least one more chance to have all of her children and grandchildren around her. Some of 

my husband’s family live far away, and as 

airline prices continue to increase, it has 

really strained their budgets to try to buy 

plane tickets to come to Idaho. As a family, 

we have all pitched in to help pay needed 

travel expenses, but it has been tough. I hate 

to sound like a whiner, vacationing and eating out are things I can, in the long run, live 

without, but the problem is that energy 

prices just keep getting higher, and I do not 

see any light at the end of the tunnel. I am 

starting to worry that I will not be able to 

afford to heat my home this winter. This last 

winter we used an electric blanket so we 

could turn our heat off at night and save energy, and we kept our thermostat low and 

dressed in warm clothes during the day, but 

Idaho winters are cold, and there is not 

much more we can do to conserve. We have 

to have energy to heat our homes and transport us to work and school, and we are getting to the brink of not being able to afford 

it. 

As for answers to the problem, I am no expert on this stuff, but I have done a little 

reading, and the best answers I can find are 

as follows: 

(1) Build coal to oil plants. Our country 

has a lot of coal, and we can produce oil from 

coal for cheaper than we are buying it right 

now. 

(2) Make a push to build more nuclear 

power plants in the US, and get to work on 

building them NOW!—they take a long time 

to build and we are running out of time. I realize there is a strong minority in our country that is good at halting any effort toward 

starting new nuclear energy plants, but I 

think if the American public were better 

educated on the benefits, safety, and cleanliness of nuclear power, the public would stand 

up against those minorities that are stopping nuclear power in the US. That is why I 

think that along with trying to build more 

nuclear power plants, we also need to educate the public. 

(3) Drill ANWR. I think that speaks for 

itself. 

(4) I have been really disappointed that our 

President does not seem to be saying much 

on the energy crisis. I think he needs to address the American people and make it clear 

that he sees this as a national crisis. I think 

he needs to outline for the public what options are being debated in Washington, and 

what the road blocks are we face. I really 

think that if he would address this problem 

directly and publically, it would capture the 

public’s attention and get people more active 

in standing up and working together to help 

fix the problem. When 9/11 happened and our 

country faced a huge crisis, the people of 

this country came together to help those in 

need. I think that if we had a leader that let 

the public know what was going on with the 

energy crisis—i.e., why we are having such a 

huge energy crisis and what our options are 

to fix things—then the people of this country 

would band together to find answers. Personally, I would like to see the American public 

band together to fight against all the minority groups out there that stand in the way of 

things like nuclear power and drilling for oil 

in places like ANWR, but that just might be 

me. 

Thanks for your efforts. I am glad to know 

someone in Washington is working on this. 

LALOVE, Idaho Falls. 

I believe getting a handle on energy prices 

is of utmost importance for our economy. If 

we do not get it under control, I believe we 

are headed for a depression the likes of we 

have never seen before. With the trade imbalance growing along with the cost of oil, at 

some point something is going to break because we cannot keep a deficit growing at 

this rate. It is vital that we look into alternative energy sources but that is years away 

and we need to solve this problem now. It 

also bothers me that a lot of the money 

being spent is going to countries that support terrorism. That just seems so backwards. 

We need to develop the resources we have. 

It is so ironic that the activists that are preventing the development of our resources 

may in fact actually destroy the things they 

are trying to preserve. I am in favor of protecting the environment but we need to do it 

in the right way. When energy prices reach a 

certain point, the majority of the population 

will demand that these resources get developed any way possible and that would probably end up destroying the environment 

worse than if we do it the right way now. 

You can not stop development of it forever 

and I think we need to do it now when we 

can control how it is done. In other words, I 

believe there is a point where the resources 

will be developed without concern for the environment. I do not think were are far from 

that. 

In summary, I think we need to start developing our oil resources now and continue 

to work on alternative energy (including nuclear). If we delay I believe it will be economically and environmentally disastrous 

for us. 

BRENT, Meridian. 

Speed limits 55 mph national. This might 

help. Slow up and save money. 

LOWELL, Emmett. 

We lost our semi, our independent trucking 

business. We cannot afford groceries anymore. We nearly lost our house of 16 years, 

too. If [changes are not made soon], all 

Americans stand to lose a lot. 

JOHN and LAURIE. 

Reduce highway speed limits. I drive the 

interstate between Nampa and Fruitland 

three times per week. The speed of the traffic, although the limit is 75, is 65 or less. Motorists want permission to drive slower. 

Lower the speed limit to 55. Truckers would 

then have a reason to drive slower. They 

want to save money, but since the speed 

limit is 65 and all the finances around their 

trip is based on traveling that legal limit— 

they have to go 65. 

f 

LORI, Nampa. 

ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS 

CONGRATULATING BRONZE MEDAL 

SCHOOLS IN KENTUCKY 

∑ Mr. BUNNING. Madam President, 

today I congratulate the top public 

schools in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I was pleased to learn that U.S. 

News and World Report awarded 26 

high schools in Kentucky with a bronze 

medal for their outstanding performance on standardized exams and for 

providing college-level coursework. 

These 26 Kentucky high schools have 

shown that they foster an environment 

that serves all students, no matter 

their academic goals, by demonstrating 

a commitment to excellence through 

quality education. These Bronze Medal 

Schools back this up with measurable 

academic outcomes that show improvement throughout a range of performance indicators. 

I have always been proud of Kentucky education because of its relentless effort to enhance and develop the 

lives of every student. This is a well deserved recognition for the excellent 

work that is done by all of these high 

schools, and I would like to congratulate each for its great success. 

The following schools were commended with awards: Barbourville City 

School in Barbourville, KY; Bardstown 

High School in Bardstown, KY; Central 

High School in Louisville, KY; Corbin 

High School in Corbin, KY; Dawson 

Springs High School in Dawson 

Springs, KY; Eminence High School in 

Eminence, KY; Evarts High School in 

Evarts, KY; Frederick Fraize High 

School in Cloverport, KY; Graves County High School in Mayfield, KY; Hancock County High School in Lewisport,