Byron Dorgan: “I was in a town called Zeeland, ND, because we have a serious drought occurring in ranching country. We had ranchers and…”

“I was in a town called Zeeland, ND, because we have a serious drought occurring in ranching country. We had ranchers and farmers--this is a town of about 120 people and 170 ranchers and farmers showed up very concerned about how they are going to feed their cattle. We talked a lot about the drought and the devastation for ranchers and farmers when it doesn't rain and how they take care of their cattle herd and what might happen to them. One of the issues raised in that meeting repeatedly was--in addition to the lack of rain--if you are running a farm or ranch, you are a heavy user of energy. What has happened to the price of energy, particularly the price of fuel, has been devastating to those farmers and ranchers. Our State university pointed out that the average farm and ranch in North Dakota is confronted with about $18,000 a year in higher costs because of what has happened to the price of fuel. This morning I woke up and listened to the news, just as I did yesterday, and found that the price of oil is over $75 a barrel and continuing to go up. If we take a look at the major integrated oil companies in this country, we will discover the substantial increase in profits--this is 2005 over 2004, last year's numbers: 43-percent increase, 37-percent increase, 31-percent increase in profits.…”