Dale Bumpers: “I want to again reiterate my strong opposition to the so-called gas tax cut. I have labored on the Energy Committee for…”

“I want to again reiterate my strong opposition to the so-called gas tax cut. I have labored on the Energy Committee for 21 years and 4 months. An awful lot of that time has been spent preaching about conservation and how we must achieve some degree of energy independence. It has not been too long since cars were lined up at the service stations. Getting their gas tanks filled was a 1 to 2 hour proposition. How soon we forget. There were cries then that we ought to raise the gasoline tax by as much as $1 per gallon. I was never for that. The reason I was never for it is because people in my State, which is mainly rural, have to drive many miles to go to work and do errands. In a rural State people drive from their homes to work in communities 25 miles away. That is a 50-mile-a-day commute. A 50-mile commute a day with a $1 per gallon gasoline tax adds up to a staggering burden on middle- and low-income workers. I have, however, always been a strong champion of fuel efficiency.”