"Tired of High Gas Prices? So Am I" - John Mica

[dougskiles]

-REP. JOHN L. MICA E-NEWSLETTER-

Dear Friends:

Having recently paid $4.39 per gallon in Washington, D.C., I share the concern many of you have raised about the current cost of gasoline.  This is an issue for all Americans and our nation.

Unfortunately, our nation’s energy policy has relied on foreign produced and controlled oil.  Since the energy crisis of the late 1970’s, Congress has failed to adopt a sound and comprehensive energy policy.  The price at the pump continues to spike with every disruption in source, holding the United States and consumers hostage.

High gasoline cost is a direct result of limited supply and increasing demand.  In some cases, this is compounded by unscrupulous fuel retailers who take advantage of this model unjustly increasing prices.  Government can act to stop price gouging and penalize abusers, but really never control market prices.

In today’s unstable world, it has become painfully clear that the policy of foreign dependence on oil will only ransom our economy and burden American families.  This also curtails economic recovery and cannot be allowed to continue.  While today’s prices are high, tomorrow’s prices may be even worse if we do not adopt a sound short and long term energy plan.

We must expedite the development of our domestic resources in the short-term.  Some short-term solutions to bring immediate relief are to allow expanded natural gas exploration and allow oil production in the ANWR and Outer Continental Shelf with safer measures and better oversight.  Increasing the number of oil refineries and their capacity will also aid supply and pricing.  We must look to our own resources to attain energy independence by both accessing domestic production and also by encouraging positive energy alternatives.

This year, many of the oil source countries have experienced considerable political and social strife.  Our gas prices are hostage to world events, placing us in a helpless position to control our own energy destiny.  Our nation has the resources to sustain our current and future energy needs.  Clean energy sources can provide us with a long-term solution to our energy needs, but unfortunately will not solve our problems in the short-term.  Forcing extremely expensive solutions will only add to our national debt and increase U.S. spending compounding our problems.  We need solutions that will create jobs to accelerate our recovery.  Realizing this, the House will be considering three pieces of legislation with the goal of increasing domestic production and reducing gas prices.

As your Representative, please know that I will continue working with my colleagues to strengthen our economy, preserve our national security interests, protect consumers and secure America’s energy needs.  While there are no simple answers to high gasoline prices, be assured that I remain committed to supporting legislation that will allow for a sound domestic energy policy and will allow us to free ourselves from being at the mercy of those that do not share our interests.

Interesting - so promoting clean energy is seen as forcing an extremely expensive solution that will only add to our national debt and increase U.S. spending but continuing to promote suburban sprawl by subsidizing the cost of gasoline will not?

[Jimmy]

We could solve the energy crisis if only we could capture John Mica's hot air and use it for productive purposes. #sarcasm

[Timkin]

I want those cars (?) like the Jetsons have, so that they (the Oil Companies) have to PAY US to take the damn stuff .

[tufsu1]

and now Mica is holding the Federal share of Miami's port funding hostage until he hears what Rick Scott is planning to do with SunRail...that is gamesmanship at its best!

[thelakelander]

So you just can't flip the feds the middle finger on projects you don't personally like and expect them to pay for those you try and spin as your own? Interesting.

[dougskiles]

Newton's Third Law of Motion:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

[finehoe]

Some short-term solutions to bring immediate relief are to allow expanded natural gas exploration and allow oil production in the ANWR and Outer Continental Shelf

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Gulf-oil-spill-one-year-anniversary/ss/events/us/041511gulfspillanniv

[mtraininjax]

Wow, Mica said something, did your kitchen table move with the shockwaves? Yeah, bleh here too!

[Timkin]

I don't have a kitchen table

[mtraininjax]

I don't have a kitchen table

Then use your bean bag chair.

[Timkin]

[Garden guy]

Our prices are higher because we have allowed the deregulation of the market which allows idiots to in some damn office who thinks he knows what the world needs and shoves up the price...our prices are high because brokers are making millions on us....see what happens when you take the rules of the game and let the players make the rule....welcome to america

[PeeJayEss]

Our prices are higher because we have allowed the deregulation of the market which allows idiots to in some damn office who thinks he knows what the world needs and shoves up the price...our prices are high because brokers are making millions on us....see what happens when you take the rules of the game and let the players make the rule....welcome to america

Prices aren't high, we're just greedy and addicted. I can get gasoline - the magical non-renewable elixir that powers everything and could have been made into much more useful space-age plastic products for sanitary medical procedures or food storage - for the same price as milk. We absolutely waste this stuff by lighting it on fire (and turning it into single-use bags). Maybe whats unreasonable is not the price of gas, but our desire to waste it so efficiently.

[peestandingup]

At this point, there's not much anyone anywhere can do. We've completely painted ourselves into a corner & made our whole way of life center around cheap oil & cars, cheap food & no other way of doing things...like at all (I'm not even allowed to grow food on my property).

Don't think for a second that all of this stuff wasn't done that way on purpose. Obviously we had other means of transit, delivery methods, etc that we could have built upon, while exploring alternative energies more aggressively, but we didn't do that. These guys got way too greedy, but in doing that what they didn't realize is that when all this stuff crashes, ways of life goes away, things get restructured, etc, it effects them as well.

This is going to hurt.

[dougskiles]

This is going to hurt.

But in a good, just worked-out-really-hard, kind of way.  I'm looking forward to it.  Can't happen soon enough for me.