“Congress has long been looking for a solution to our nation’s energy shortages and high prices at the pump.  Time and time again, long term solutions are touted to these immediate problems.  While I agree that we must plan well for our national energy future, it is also true that we must work on short term solutions that will bring relief to the American driver and the U.S. transportation system.

 

I joined my colleagues in the House of Representatives earlier this month in passing one such measure designed to ease Americans’ pain at the pump.  The GAS Act seeks to increase America’s domestic fuel supply by encouraging new refineries through regulatory relief for their costly infrastructure.  Hurricanes Katrina and Rita demonstrated that our oil refining capacity is too concentrated in the Gulf states.  About 47 percent of U.S. refining and 28 percent of our oil production occur in the Gulf region – and any
change in their operations can cause a ripple effect on gas prices. 

 

The bill would also ban price gouging and increase federal penalties for gas stations and oil companies who take advantage of emergency situations to raise prices.  The Federal Trade Commission will be charged with creating a standard for price gouging and enforcing it.  These new rules will give added strength to existing state laws like we have in Missouri.

 

These protections are especially important in rural America, where recent studies indicate we spend an estimated 22 percent more on gasoline simply because we drive farther to school, to work, or to stores and services. 

 

Finally, the GAS Act promotes conservation through carpooling and fuel efficiency in a grant program especially geared to urban areas.  All of these ideas must be included in a swift solution to the gasoline crisis in America.  Indeed, we must apply some of these same principles to our refining system for home heating oil, with high prices and a cold winter on the horizon.

 

In the U.S. Senate, Senator Jim Talent is working to move many of these same solutions to the forefront of the agenda.

 

He and I suggest we look to rural America for another solution: the promotion of ethanol, soy diesel and other alternative fuels.  The need for a larger, decentralized refining system is acute: I see no reason whythe only basis of a new system should be oil.  Surrounding our rural communities are literally fields of fuel in the form of corn and soybeans that can be refined and used as alternative fuels and additives to gasoline.  We must take advantage of our ability to build ethanol refineries, stations, and cars to reduce our consumption of oil resources.

 

A wonderful case in point is a new E85 station I visited on Friday in Bernie, Missouri, which is in Stoddard County.  E85, a fuel composed of 85 percent Ethanol, offers great promise for reducing our reliance on foreign sources of oil.  It can be used in specialty flexible-fuel vehicles – and there are thousands of them on the road in Missouri right now.  We also announced a USDA grant to assist farmers and establish the first Ethanol plant in the Bootheel.

 

Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development, I was glad to announce federal grants to get the E85 station up and running.  Price of the fuel on its first day? Eighty-five cents per gallon.  The revolutionary opportunity for a great value-added product will benefit Missouri producers – as well as push the envelope when it comes to developing automobiles that do not rely on oil alone. 

 

E85 is the kind of forward-thinking solution we need to turn this energy crisis into a new energy opportunity.”