Nick Rahall: “Yesterday the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing on matters pertaining to the soaring costs…”

“Yesterday the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a hearing on matters pertaining to the soaring costs of gasoline and diesel fuel. Ostensibly the purpose of the hearing was to determine whether consumers would benefit from repealing a 4.3 cents Federal fuel tax, which they would not. Such a proposal is SSI, a simply stupid idea. Experts in the transportation field, including consumer groups such as the AAA, all said this proposal would have severe adverse effects on our country in terms of highway safety, congestion relief and employment while, at the most, saving the American consumer about fifty cents a week; the price of a pack of chewing gum, if that, because the oil companies would probably take that amount themselves. What every witness did support, however, is releasing oil from the SPR, and I join them in calling on the President to do so immediately. This is very important within the context of the measure we now consider. I am sure that the President and our former colleague, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, are doing their best on the diplomatic front, but one cannot fight a cartel without weapons and our best weapon is to turn on the spigots, bring our fuel prices down and show OPEC that we will not be at its mercy, that we will not be held hostage.”