January 13, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S335 

White Mountain National Forest specifically. During these challenging 

times, I also find it hard to understand 

why some groups are trying to thwart 

the Mill Brook proposal when their 

previous attempts to block similar 

projects have not succeeded, especially 

when timber harvesting in this area 

will provide an economic boost for the 

Granite State. 

As I have said in the past, the White 

Mountain National Forest can and 

should be accessible to a wide variety 

of uses, including timber harvesting. 

While I certainly agree that the Forest 

Service must follow the law and carry 

out certain environmental reviews, I 

also believe that this administrative 

appeal runs counter to New Hampshire’s interests. I therefore hope that 

this appeal process is resolved as soon 

as possible and that we can all support 

the Forest Service’s management of 

the White Mountain National Forest, 

including the Mill Brook project. 

f 

IDAHOANS SPEAK OUT ON HIGH 

ENERGY PRICES 

Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, in midJune, 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: 

HONORABLE MIKE CRAPO: My name is Brian 

Gross and my wife Kelly and I have lived in 

Idaho since January as I graduated from the 

University of Wisconsin-Madison and received a job at Idaho National Laboratory in 

Idaho Falls. We settled into a comfortable 

fifteen hundred square foot town home and 

own two cars that we both drive to work 

every day. Our extremely short commute of 

4 miles and 3 miles respectively requires that 

we spend around $160 per month on gasoline. 

Though both cars achieve no less than 20 

miles per gallon in the city and upwards of 32 

miles per gallon on the highway, we would 

use more than our entire month’s budget for 

gasoline if we made a trip to visit our relatives in North Dakota 800 miles away, making a trip for the holidays a rather expensive 

venture. 

One would think after seeing the Hubbert 

curve peak near the earlier part of this decade, you would want to begin the move towards other sources of fuel for our vehicles. 

If the OPEC embargo of 1973 was not enough, 

what will it take before we make the shift? 

The wonderful businessmen of Toyota and 

Honda appreciated the coming situation and 

conveniently developed a car that would contribute greatly in allowing the former to surpass all of the big three companies in sales of 

automobiles for the first time ever in April 

2007. Even though GM and Ford have turned 

around with several hybrid and electric car 

projects, that still leaves the transportation 

industry vying for even more expensive diesel fuel. In my opinion, the first step for Congress would be to drastically subsidize the 

expansion of domestic biodiesel production. I 

mention only biodiesel, because of the issue 

with corn based ethanol cutting into our 

food supply. To counter that issue, why don’t 

we revitalize methanol, which can be produced from garbage, as a fuel? Ford produced 

several vehicles subsequent to the oil embargo which ran on methanol, so the concept is 

proven, we just need to reestablish the fuel 

production industry. 

As for electricity production, I as a nuclear 

engineer strenuously support the expansion 

of nuclear power. The loudening drum beat 

for action against anthropogenic climate 

change, though I am not a advocate of the 

theory, has drawn support for nuclear and 

public opinion is shifting in its favor. Assuming that you are an avid supporter of the INL 

and the nuclear industry, I would like to address my frustration with Senator Harry 

Reid’s ignorance and stubbornness of the 

Yucca mountain repository. I hope you are 

asserting the fact to him and his supporters 

that it is a repository, not a dump as they 

keep calling it. I’m sure you’ve used the example of the French as the right thing to do 

considering 80% of their electricity is generated by nuclear, their waste is reprocessed, 

and most importantly, they are energy independent. 

Lastly, I would like to thank you for addressing the issue of energy with the people 

of Idaho. I hope you will carry our message 

to the Senate with great fervor and it will 

not fall upon deaf ears. 

BRIAN J. GROSS, Idaho Falls. 

Our family is affected very little. You see, 

Senator Crapo, a year ago I was anticipating 

something like this and bought a 35mpg Kia 

Spectra, with which my wife and commute 

to our jobs 60 miles round-trip every day. 

About a year ago, I noticed how the value 

of the dollar was on a steady decline due to 

Bush Administration policies (Chinese debt 

to fund the war, flooding the globe with 

USDs, unregulated futures commodities) and 

expected that since the value of a barrel of 

oil was based on the USD, and the value of 

the USD was on the rapid decline, I had better do something fast. So I bought the best 

value in a high MPG automobile that I could 

find, a Korean car. I would have bought an 

American car, but again, I was looking for 

value, and no American manufacturers could 

offer the same value as South Korean made 

Kia. A shame. 

So, to answer your question—It has not affected us that much at all. We were prepared 

because we could see the future based on our 

analysis of Republican policies. 

BRUCE BACON. 

DEAR SENATOR CRAPO: Thank you for wanting to know what the people think. Energy 

prices really haven’t changed my life at all. 

I produce almost all the power and hot water 

I need with solar panels and have a solar 

charging electric car. 

Producing more oil in the U.S. will solve 

nothing as any new supply will be bought by 

China and India. We need to change fuel 

sources. Electricity will be the future fuel 

source and it must be generated in Idaho by 

hydro/geothermal/wind/solar. Renewables 

are: Free fuel forever. 

Nuclear will only make us more dependant 

on imports. We import 58 percent of our oil 

which is not a good thing. We import over 92 

percent of the uranium used to fuel nuclear 

power plants. So, we should be talking about 

getting off our dependence of imported nuclear fuel with the goal of shutting down our 

nuclear power plants when the renewable 

generation is in place. 

JOHN WEBER, Boise. 

I’m not going to bore you with sad tales of 

my life today. I want all you folks in DC to 

tell the enviros they’re killing a country 

whose life and economy are based on oil. If 

they want a perfect world in one national 

park from coast to coast, find another country to do it in. 

Next, I want you to take crude oil off the 

commodities markets. All that is is people 

making all the money they possibly can and 

not having a care about what they are doing 

to people worldwide. 

Is this asking too much of people elected 

to represent us instead of listening to a minority that makes a lot of noise. And if 

you’re making money off of crude on the 

commodities market, then I guess you’ll get 

rid of this E-mail. 

MIKE ARNOLD. 

I am lucky enough to work only 10 miles 

from my home. My husband got a job at the 

same place as I, so now we can carpool to 

work, saving on fuel. However, he is in the 

process of getting hired on with the police 

force. We have an SUV that we are in over 

our heads on in payments, as many Americans are. We also have a dodge diesel that 

gets 18.0 miles to the gallon. We leased this 

vehicle and have 2 more years left to go. The 

only reason we did this was because gasoline 

was $3.00/gallon and diesel was $1.99/gallon. 

Then, prices soared. We are no longer allowed to go camping, hunting, riding our 

ATVs, or even go fishing. It costs too much. 

Not only are we feeling confined to our 

home, but businesses are suffering too. We 

are willing to pay a campground fee to have 

fun, but we cannot even afford to leave. We 

take our children to daycare, go to work, 

pick our children up from daycare, and go 

home. On Sunday, we go to church and come 

home. We do not have the luxury of going to 

the store for fun anymore with the spare 

change we have. Our stimulus check went 

into the bank to pay for future fuel costs. By 

the way, it’s gone now. 

I fully support the means of finding alternate energy not only for fuel, but for electrical power as well. 

STEPHANIE L. ROVIG, Middleton. 

I was around for the first ‘‘energy crisis’’ 

in 1973. A few years later, Americans were 

again reminded that our oil comes from 

‘‘over there,’’ is a finite resource, and should 

be conserved. But we did not listen. So here 

we are, thirty-five years later, with another 

opportunity to change our driving habits and 

our energy consumption. Switching to 

biofuels and electricity is not going to help 

much: the production of both consumes huge 

quantities of fossil fuels. Americans must 

conserve energy. We must learn to think differently about our energy consumption. We 

are like the dieter who loses fifty pounds, 

looks great, feels great, and then slowly 

gains all the weight back because he had not 

changed the way he thinks about food. 

Americans get into ‘‘feel good’’ mode. We 

walk conservation, talk conservation, and 

sometimes even drive conservatively. But 

when the newness of higher gas prices wears 

off, we go right back to overconsumption. 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with SENATE
S336 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE January 13, 2009 

The government isn’t going to help out 

long-term if they go after the gas and oil 

companies. Okay, maybe their profits seem a 

bit high in light of what everybody else is 

going through, but ultimately, conservation 

will affect the market and they’ll have to 

turn down the prices. Government can subsidize mass transit and price it so that it’s 

the economic choice. Government can reward conservation. Incentives for auto manufacturers to produce energy conscious vehicles will inspire research and could result in 

some little guy creating the next great automotive company, one whose main focus is 

energy conservation. We can change the 

ethos that drives our American reliance on 

petrochemicals. We must change the ethos, 

for the good of our planet and the social 

structures that it supports. 

That is my story. Thanks for asking, Senator Crapo. 

MIRIAM I. LYNGHOLM, Moscow. 

Thank you for your proactive email on a 

critical issue. I am usually the one emailing 

you (along with Larry Craig, and Bill Sali) 

about whatever issue it is that I feel needs 

attention . . . line the still porous Southern 

border!! My husband and I have not done our 

usual weekly lunch out and our pizza night. 

I find, if I am lacking something for a recipe, 

I just do without it. Before the insanity of 

the current pump prices, I would just hop in 

the car and head to the store to get the missing item. That usually interpreted itself to a 

minimum $20.00 purchase, because you always see something to just ‘‘pick up while I 

am there’’. But, no more. I find I incorporate 

as many errands in one trip as possible. I am 

definitely driving less, eating out less, and 

shopping less, even at the grocery. 

Do I like this? Not one bit, especially when 

it is as unnecessary as it is. We have resources in this country that have not even 

been explored. Drill off the Atlantic. I have 

lived on the Florida Gulf coast. I know what 

a spill does, but the technology and safe 

guards are far superior to what they used to 

be! Move the limit out a bit, then explore. 

How about the shale available in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado? I do not advocate destroying beautiful places at all. There are 

ways to return the earth to its previous 

state. We don’t ‘‘scalp’’ the forest anymore 

with clear cutting. We have learned forest 

management. The same can be true of retrieving the oil from shale. Why then, does it 

take 2 years just to get the air permit to 

start up in those states? We won a world war 

in just twice that time. Surely, we can push 

paper faster in this crisis. Our economy is 

being crippled . . . one family at a time. 

I hope you will vote to start exploring/ 

drilling at a sensible distance off our shores 

. . . but START! The other issue is the free 

reign of the futures/commodity speculators 

and their part in all of these inflated prices. 

This has not happened before on this type of 

scale. Wasn’t there some regulation in place 

that was done away with in the late 1990s 

that opened the way for this pillaging that is 

happening today? I implore you to take 

measures to stop these people who are inflating these prices and lining their pockets at 

the pain of others. 

Thank you for writing and for your vigilance on the border (even though nothing is 

happening), and the gas price issues. 

VIRGINIA CARTER, Boise. 

Should be an easy one for your office to 

track. Follow a bbl of oil from AK, MT, WY, 

ND, SD, PA, TX or CA from the wellhead to 

the service station. You may not be able to 

publish what you come up with. . . 

RODGER COLGAN. 

I read with sadness your email on the poor 

plight of us Amercians being consumed by 

rising Energy prices. Your aim at getting 

more exploration for energy reserves misses 

the entire problem. 

The problem is not that Gas prices, have 

gone up. Nor have housing prices or food 

prices increased. 

You are looking at the symptom of a much 

bigger problem. What has changed is that 

the value of the dollar has decreased. As 

pegged by the price of gold, silver and the 

eruo the dollar is worth less than it was in 

2000. At that time gold was about $250 per 

ounce, the Euro was $.92 and Silver was 

somewhere around $5.00. Today Gold is near 

$900, Silver around $17 and the euro is around 

$1.55. 

So Gas should be about $5.76. Given that 

the price of gold has gone up over 3 times 

and so has silver. 

The problem Senator is that the value of 

the Dollar or more accurately that Federal 

Reserve Token that most Americans refer to 

as the Dollar has declined. 

It has declined because of the overprinting 

by the Federal Reserve who at Congresses request asks them to print more so they can 

borrow these fictitious dollars and pay back 

the private bankers called the Federal Reserve at an amazing profit. 

When you measure gas prices and food 

prices against real money as defined by our 

constitution, i.e. Gold and Silver, gas in real 

terms is about a $1.60 in 2000 terms. 

One could argue that the price of Gold has 

also gone up in price but that is missing the 

point. Money as defined is a store of labor. A 

dollar as defined by our constitution is 25.8 

grains of gold. You cannot inflate or deflate 

gold or silver. They are what they are. 

Sound. The Federal Reserve Tokens most 

Americans refer to as dollars, on the other 

hand is printed as fast or as slow as the government who borrows it. The Federal Reserve then charges interest on something 

that has been created out of thin air. What a 

business that has got to be. That is why the 

founders established a sound currency 

backed by gold. In 1913 Congress fell for a 

scheme to take the people’s money. In 1929 

Roosevelt created a banking holiday to convince the people that taking sound money 

from them would save the country. The people obviously confused by the recent events 

and nearly 20 years of advertising by the 

Federal Reserve Banksters were convinced 

that they should give up good money for 

worthless paper currency. 

Let me give you an analogy most Americans might understand. Let us assume you 

are playing monopoly. We will give you a 

special player’s piece let us call it the pig. 

The pig is playing like all the other players, 

however you, as the pig get to the coveted 

piece of real estate called Boardwalk. On realizing that you don’t have enough money to 

buy Boardwalk you simply take some from 

the bank (Federal Reserve) and buy it. Now 

the other players (THE People of the U.S.) 

that you are playing with do not see you do 

this. However, after many more rolls of dice 

you seem to never run short of money. You 

simply go to the Federal Reserve and grab 

some more monopoly money. Now other 

players cannot seem to keep up. Their 

money is worthless. IN fact you have so 

much you simply bid up the price of anything you want to buy. This of course creates 

a huge disadvantage but you don’t care you 

are the Pig, er government. Now the bank is 

asking for you to begin making those huge 

interest payments so now rather than the 

other players getting $200 when they pass go 

you pass a new rule and the other players get 

a bill for $200. Doesn’t seem fair does it? Well 

that is what you and the other congressmen 

have been doing for the last 90+ years. 

So here we are today with Congress borrowing paper currency or debt instruments 

that the Federal Reserve gets to charge the 

people interest on. This Business by the 

banksters is something for nothing Banking 

Scam. 

Real Money, Gold and Silver, does not 

change over time. It is sound, it is fair and 

when this country was founded some 230 

years ago it changed an economy that was in 

the shambles to one of stability. 

Today what does change is how many dollars Congress borrows to fund the occupation 

in Iraq, Afghanistan and the other 700 bases 

we have around the world. 

The only real solution to this is to go back 

to a Gold Standard, and abolish the Federal 

Reserve, which is neither Federal nor are 

there any reserves. This private banking system, coupled with you and congresses overspending is what has put our economy in a 

tailspin that is much like the created disaster of 1929 and 1979. 

Now the world no longer wants our debt 

and since we have no real money to pay it 

back with. The solution is to get back to a 

gold backed currency that the world can respect and trust. 

It is nice that you congressmen and women 

point fingers as to the symptoms of the problem but you need to be pointing the fingers 

at yourselves who have allowed the problem. 

You have allowed President Bush and Dick 

Cheney, to run amuk with a blank check 

book spending money on a war that was 

never approved by the spineless Congress. 

You can pass all the laws and resolutions 

you wish but they are just window dressing. 

Until we get sound money and Congress 

takes responsibility for allowing Dick Cheney to run the white house then we will continue to see our wealth erode. 

My hope is that you pull all the troops 

home, shut down all the bases and put this 

country on a sound money system by eliminating the Federal Reserve. Until you stop 

printing and spending Federal Reserve Tokens on guns and butter the dollar will continue its free fall until the people’s wealth 

has been confiscated by the over printing of 

the currency. 

May God bless you Congressman if you 

stand up to this charade created so long ago. 

For our country to survive you must take a 

stand. 

If you don’t take a stand, if no one stands 

up for the values our founders instituted so 

long ago, then I fear that our country will 

become just like other 3rd world countries 

whose governments have stolen the people 

blind with fiat currencies like what we have 

here in the United States. 

Good Luck. 

DAVID DEHAAS. 

Like you or any other politician in DC 

really cares about the common folk who sent 

them there. You all could have set forth 

changes to allow more exploration and development of our own oil/gas in such areas as 

off the coasts and in ANWR but you didn’t. 

So I ask you again why bother acting like 

you care, you don’t pay for gas in your car or 

try to buy fuel to run your farm or truck. 

f 

ALBERT MORRISON, Ammon. 

EXECUTIVE AND OTHER 

COMMUNICATIONS 

The following communications were 

laid before the Senate, together with 

accompanying papers, reports, and documents, and were referred as indicated: 

EC–435. A communication from the Chief 

Financial Officer, Department of Housing 

and Urban Development, transmitting, pursuant to law, a report relative to the Department’s competitive sourcing efforts during 


smartinez on PROD1PC64 with SENATE