RAHALL REPORT: America Needs to Declare Its ENERGY Independence
From the desk of U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)Representing West Virginia's 3rd District
Washington, D.C. (HNN) -- The proverbial hammer has dropped as far as the energy crisis is concerned, and it has fallen with a resounding thud on the state of West Virginia. With oil prices skyrocketing and gasoline at $3 a gallon, it pains me to say that the worst is yet to come. According to the most recent government forecast released this week, some of the most common types of fuel used for heating will cost households up to 50 percent more this winter.
The steepest increase will be for natural gas, with the average household paying $350 more this winter, according to the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration. Households using heating oil face a 32 percent increase. The average bill for households using electricity to heat their homes is expected to climb 5 percent.
What's worse is that those hardest hit by these increasing heating bills will be the people with low incomes who have already stretched their wallets thin paying high prices for gasoline.
We are now 28 weeks into this crisis, almost 200 days of being pinched at the pump, a cold winter lies ahead, and there is no resolution in sight. Last week, the Republican leadership in Congress narrowly passed an energy bill that ignores the real needs of West Virginians. The bill fails to reduce skyrocketing gas prices and does not protect us from price gouging at the pump.
I, along with my Democratic colleagues, supported a substitute to that bill, which would have established a Strategic Refinery Reserve (SRR), patterned after the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), to ensure new refining capacity that operates at all times and can be increased during supply disruptions. The bill I supported would also provide stronger price gouging protection. Unfortunately, that proposal, like many before it, fell on deaf ears.
The age of our heavy dependence on foreign oil must be brought to an end. We are in desperate need of a concerted drive toward real energy independence. We need to approach it with the same sense of urgency and bipartisanship that we have devoted so often to fighting disease. Why? Because this IS a disease, and it is eating away at the economy of America and at the morale of its citizens like a cancer.
We have enormous untapped potential in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energy. We have the resources. We have the technological know-how. This is not a problem without a solution.
I applaud Governor Manchin's recent announcement of a coal initiative as part of a new comprehensive state energy policy. Senator Byrd has pledged to work with the Governor to ensure that West Virginia's resources and ingenuity will help to chart the course toward a more secure energy future. This is the kind of forward-thinking that will benefit West Virginia and the Nation as a whole.
Now is the time for the federal and state governments, industry, labor, academia, environmentalists, and local community interests to put politics aside and work together.
Now is the time to declare a revolution to achieve our ENERGY independence.