Rob Bishop: “I thank Chairman Pearce from New Mexico for using the Western Caucus to illustrate some of these ideas and situations…”

“I thank Chairman Pearce from New Mexico for using the Western Caucus to illustrate some of these ideas and situations that are here. I'm also grateful that the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun) was just here and tried to show how whenever you have a policy that prohibits or discriminates or lessens the amount of energy that we have in this country, it has a direct impact on individuals and people. As he was showing, it has a direct impact on the cost of food. For every dime that diesel fuel increases, that's $400 million the agricultural industry has to put onto the cost of food. Not just in transporting the food but for the fertilizer to grow it, for the boxing, the shipping, the manufacturing of it--all of those things are added to it. For every penny that the cost of gasoline increases at the pump, that is $1 billion that's taken out of the household income of Americans. And whom is that going to impact the worst? Obviously the people at the lower end of the economic scale, who have the most difficult time making their budget stretch to pay for higher transportation costs through fuel, for higher food costs because fuel goes up, for higher heating costs because fuel goes up. They're the ones who are hurt. Now, I also appreciate Mr.…”