On the recordJune 23, 2014
I appreciate the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) yielding. Mr. Speaker, I don't want to engage in a debate on global warming, especially after the winter we had in Wisconsin last winter. The bottom line is last winter it was incredibly cold in Wisconsin, and we saw home heating fuel prices for some of my constituents go up by four times, and that was if they were able to get home heating fuels. I don't think this is the end of it because there has been a war on energy, and that war on energy makes it more difficult for my constituents to access energy. I think we have to leave those debates aside right now and look at, in the current structure, can we have some reform that actually helps people across the country when these crises amount. What this does is doesn't make us look to the Department of Transportation--which, by the way, last winter they were quick to act. We don't have to look for Congress to have some quick legislation to minimize the trucking hours of service so we can get fuel into places like northern Wisconsin. What we are going to do is we are going to empower Governors. Let Governors notice when there is a crisis and let them move quickly so we can have one piece of the burden alleviated--the hours of service requirement--so our trucks can go to the places where we have home heating fuel and bring it to northern Wisconsin, we can bring in more supply.…
