Oil prices up. Food prices up. Farm input costs up.

The Department of Energy has refused to stop buying crude oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve even though the Reserve is already 97 percent full. This action is wrong, and deliberately strikes at American kitchen tables at a time when many families are already struggling to keep food on the table during a weakened economy.

The excessive purchases serve to drive up the price of oil – gasoline, fertilizer, diesel fuel and home heating costs – because the purchases represent a significant marginal increase in the demand for oil, with the result that consumers are forced to pay more for food and other staples while Big Oil makes increasingly higher profits. Meanwhile, food producers are paying an almost 100% increase in the cost of gasoline, diesel fuel and fertilizer just to put this spring’s crop in the ground. Overall, Wells Fargo & Co. has cost out that an acre of corn cost 47% more to put into the ground this year, while the price of corn has increased only 35%. Read the rest of this entry »

I condemn the Democrats’ massive farm bill, which would increase our nation’s food costs. Americans are already having trouble making ends meet, gas prices are rising to unaffordable levels, and food costs are off the charts.

Right now, Congress has the historic opportunity to lower these prices before they continue to get worse. Instead, the Democrats bring to the floor a bill that only makes the issue worse. Why are we forcing our nation’s hard working taxpayers to pay more to put food on their table?

I urge Congress to reject the farm bill.  We have the time, the opportunity, and the duty to write a bill that is better — one that will actually lower, not raise, food prices in the U.S. and the across the globe.

Our country needs a strong, sensible long-term energy policy that can reduce our use of fossil fuels and cut our dependence on foreign oil. Last year, as part of the 2007 Energy Bill, we adopted the first increase in vehicle fuel-economy standards since the 1970s. That will raise average fuel efficiency by 40 percent, which can save the average family $1,000 in fuel costs annually.

We also need to boost investment in cutting-edge conservation technology, such as hybrid electric vehicles and the next generation of clean, renewable energy. Just this week, the U.S. Department of Energy issued a report saying it’s feasible for our country to obtain 20 percent of its electricity from wind power by 2030.

But we must also bring consumers immediate relief from high energy costs, which is why I cosponsored Tuesday’s amendment to suspend oil purchases for the government’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Our country needs the reserve for emergencies, but there is no reason to be taking oil off the market at a time of record prices. Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Cusack, managing editor of The Hill, takes a look at the week ahead on Capitol Hill.

Supporters of extending the renewable energy and efficiency tax credits should be urging House members to follow the lead of the Senate.  There are 43 bipartisan cosponsors of S. 2821.  More bipartisan cosponsors of the identical companion H.R. 5984 would be a clear demonstration of national support for greater energy efficiency and more domestic, clean, renewable energy production.

Wednesday afternoon, I joined my Senate colleagues in introducing the Consumer-First Energy Act.  What we did was we brought forward a comprehensive package that says to the American people: what’s going on now is unacceptable.  The price of oil and gas has got to go down.  This is Washington.  But in the real world, representing a cold weather state, a rural state, a working family wrote to me: last year they could not afford to heat their home and their daughter came down with pneumonia.  In the real world, workers making $10 an hour, traveling fifty miles to their jobs and fifty miles back, can’t fill up their gas tanks.  I have received hundreds of these emails and they are heartbreaking.

If we don’t act boldly, the economic situation for millions of middle-class families and working Americans will continue to deteriorate.  Congress and the president can no longer sit idly by while Americans are getting ripped off at the gas pump, the economy deteriorates, and Exxon Mobil, greedy speculators, and OPEC are allowed to make out like bandits pushing oil and gas prices higher and higher.

The American people are looking out and seeing Exxon-Mobil making more profits than any corporation in the history of the world.  They’re looking at hedge fund managers making billions of dollars in personal profits.  The time is now for Congress to begin to respond to the needs of the American people.  This package begins to do that.

Sen. Grassley is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

Without ethanol, the cost of energy would be even higher, and the high cost of energy is the main reason for higher food costs.  Ethanol is proving to be part of the energy solution, and it’s misguided and short-sighted to try to make ethanol the scapegoat for gas and grocery prices.

We have provided a boost for Wyoming tourism and honored the legacy of the late Senator Craig Thomas.  The “Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act” is now pending consideration by the full Senate.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to approve passage of the legislation introduced by Senator Thomas last May which we enhanced this past year.

Senator Thomas had a passionate vision for the Snake River.  His vision has been maintained, clarified and strengthened in this bill.  I have worked hard to add solid protections for existing property and water rights.

Wyoming folks and visitors from around the world experience unrivaled recreational opportunities including hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and boating along these stretches. That will continue, along with vital protections for existing water rights and land owners.  In short, private property rights will be protected. Read the rest of this entry »

We have secured a significant victory for one Wyoming’s most pristine natural heritages: the Wyoming Range.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted to pass the “Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2008,” S. 2229, during a business meeting. The bill now awaits consideration by the full Senate.

I made a promise to the people of Wyoming to continue the work of our friend Craig Thomas by preserving the Wyoming Range as a key part of our natural heritage. Today’s vote brings us one step closer to enhancing the tourism, recreation, grazing, hunting and sportsmen economy of the Wyoming Range.

Wyoming has a proud tradition of supporting the nation’s energy needs and will continue to do so. I strongly support oil and gas development in our state, but I also believe some places are simply too special to develop. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to keep their trucks full and moving, independent truckers and small trucking companies often carry loads arranged by others who work as middlemen between shippers and truckers (or the independent owner-operator acts as an independent contractor with a trucking company).  Independents and small trucking companies in Wisconsin have told me that there are occasions where a fuel surcharge is added on the bill paid by the shipper - but this surcharge is sometime not passed on to the truckers who actually have to buy the fuel.

In normal circumstances this seems patently unfair, but in this day of $4.00-plus per gallon diesel fuel,  it is unconscionable that a fuel surcharge is being assessed but not passed on to the one actually paying the fuel bill.  I have been told by one of my constituents, who is an independent trucker facing bankruptcy, that this inequity contributed to his financial problems.  It’s not right, which is I why on April 30 I introduced H.R. 5934, the Trust in Reliable Understanding of Consumer Costs (TRUCC) Act, to make sure that fuel surcharges are passed on to serve their advertised purpose. Read the rest of this entry »