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Washington, D.C. - As prices at our nation's gas pumps continue to escalate, so do the frustrations of motorists everywhere. For many working families, the increased costs to fill the gas tank are beginning to take a serious toll on the family budget. Many of you have called my office in recent days to ask me what Congress can do to curb the rising prices at the pump.
Like everyone else, I share frustrations about the exorbitantly high gas prices. I am committed to reviewing every solution possible to safeguard our strong economy, protect consumers, and secure America's energy needs. This problem is complicated and has been underway for decades. While we can't solve this problem overnight, there are long term and short term solutions we can initiate to address these issues.
To understand why we are paying nearly $3 for a gallon of gas, we need to take a look at some of the reasons for this situation. While demand for crude oil has increased, our domestic refining capacity has declined, both in number of refineries -- from 324 in 1981 to 153 in 2002 -- and in total capacity -- from 18.62 million barrels per day (mbd) in 1981 to 16.78 mbd in 2002. Making matters worse, the tragic hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region substantially reduced our nation's refining capacity even further, resulting in 340,438 fewer barrels of domestic oil available on any given day. Tight supplies mean even one unscheduled refinery shutdown can drive up gasoline prices, and 22.7 percent of Gulf Coast oil production is still shut down.
Our need for oil has also grown as has competition from emerging economies like China and India, and domestic production simply has not kept pace. In addition, threatening talk from Iran has driven up crude oil prices.
Many solutions for addressing our nation's high energy prices require long term plans. The Energy Policy Act, which was signed into law last year, was an important first step in developing a comprehensive national energy policy. This law helps increase U.S. energy supply and fosters greater conservation and efficiency, but we must do more.
Over the long term, we will also continue to seek ways to wean ourselves from foreign oil. We need to look closely at alternative energy sources to power our homes and businesses, such as clean, safe nuclear energy - which is good news for the Piketon Plant in Pike County and could mean more jobs for Southern Ohio.
We will also examine new energy sources for transportation, including producing ethanol not just from corn - which will benefit Ohio's farmers -- but from other cutting edge methods like wood chips and switch grass. The President set a goal of making this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within just six years. These cleaner, cheaper, more reliable alternative energy sources present opportunities for new job creation across the nation and especially here in our area. Hydrogen fuel and fuel cell vehicles are also a critical part of an overall strategy can go a long way in reducing our consumption of oil.
There are a number of short term steps that the House can take in the coming weeks and months to help address the high cost of energy. One solution is to open up the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), which holds the single largest deposit of oil in the United States. This would allow cutting edge American technology to produce energy safely here at home while protecting our environment and strengthening our national security.
President Bush was right to target our nation's "oil addiction" in his State of the Union message in January, and I support his decision to temporarily suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ensure all supplies of oil are made available on the markets. I also support the President's Advanced Energy Initiative, with a goal to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. This initiative would reduce gas consumption by increasing our use of ethanol, improving hybrid vehicles, and developing hydrogen technology.
Additionally, we can build on previous legislative measures to ban price gouging in gasoline and diesel fuel sales, and streamline the boutique fuels list to alleviate shortages and increase our energy supply.
In fact, just this past week, I supported an important measure to address price gouging in the sale of gasoline, diesel fuel, crude oil, home heating oil and biofuels. This measure, which passed the House with an overwhelming majority, further strengthens the federal government's ability to prevent and punish anti-competitive practices such as price gouging.
To continue to address these issues, both short and long term, the House Energy & Commerce Committee is holding hearings on rising energy prices, and the House Resources Committee is holding hearings on renewable and alternative energy production. Most recently, the House Agriculture Committee, on which I serve, held a hearing to examine the futures markets and gasoline prices.
While rising energy costs hit some harder than others, this is an issue that affects us all. I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle can work together to responsibly address these problems.
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