Mark Pryor: “I thank the Chair for the recognition. I wish to talk about something that is on everyone's mind. When I was in Arkansas…”

“I thank the Chair for the recognition. I wish to talk about something that is on everyone's mind. When I was in Arkansas last week for the recess, I did four or five townhall meetings and pretty much everywhere I went, this was the topic of discussion; that is, gas prices in our State. I know it hurts every American when gas prices go up because gasoline prices and diesel prices have a way of working their way through the entire economy and causing economic difficulties for this country. One of the things people pointed out to me is this roller coaster effect we have seen on gas prices over the last year or so. One thing my friends in Arkansas noticed is that the price there has gone up about 30 cents a gallon just in the last couple months. So it has been a very dramatic increase and it is something people are very concerned about. I wish to make three points about this. One is that I think the Congress--House and Senate--as well as the White House should look at this problem of speculation. When we look at the numbers, some are saying a fairly large percentage of the costs of a gallon of gas--some people say 20 cents a gallon and some people say 40 cents a gallon-- actually goes to the speculators. So what that means is a lot of these guys have no intention of ever taking the product and doing anything with it, other than just trading it, to try to profiteer in a volatile market. That is a big concern.…”