John Kerry: “with the temperatures pushing 90 degrees here in Washington, today might strike some as an odd time to introduce a bill…”

“with the temperatures pushing 90 degrees here in Washington, today might strike some as an odd time to introduce a bill on heating fuels. But for those of us who know the costs of a cold winter ahead, the real fuel crisis is now--and the clock is ticking when it comes to Washington's ability to step in and help before it's too late and this problem becomes a crisis and another state of emergency is declared on Massachusetts. Now and in the coming weeks, families and businesses will be sitting down to sign their heating fuel contracts, with record prices creating impossible decisions between feeding one's family and heating the home, and laying off employees or going further into debt. This week the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held a hearing entitled ``Examining Solutions to Cope with the Rise in Home Heating Oil Prices'' in which we heard testimony on the effect the historic spike in heating oil prices is having on small businesses. Nationally, 7.7 million households heat their homes with home heating oil. In Massachusetts, more than 963,000 households use home heating oil delivered by over 800 distributors, many of them small businesses. It is reality--not rhetoric--that price spikes will force people to decide whether to feed their families or heat their homes, and will force small businesses to layoff employees and in some cases shut their doors.”