Bond outlines ways to lower energy costs

U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, like most Americans, would like to see the cost of fuel come down in the United States. Speaking at “The Rocket” truck stop west of Hannibal Wednesday afternoon, Bond lamented the impact fuel prices are having on Americans.
“This (price of fuel) is a tremendous burden on families, on businesses that depend on transportation,” said Bond, using a sign listing fuel prices as his backdrop. “We’ve got to stop this nonsense of prohibiting exploring for, developing and producing the oil and gas we have in the United States.”
Bond outlined a plan to lower fuel costs. It includes:
• Suspending additional deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
• Opening in an environmentally responsible manner U.S. oil and gas reserves in Alaska, off U.S. shores and in oil shale deposits in the Rocky Mountains.
• Streamlining the oil refinery permitting process, without relaxing any requirements.
• Incentivize alternative sources of energy and the manufacturing base needed to produce new sources of fuels.
Bond noted that the plan failed on a party-line vote earlier this month.
There is an energy-related proposal in Washington that Bond does not support.
“There was one Congresswoman saying she wanted to nationalize the oil industry,” said Missouri’s senior senator. “If you like the compassion of the IRS, efficiency of the post office and effectiveness of Katrina relief just put oil and gas under the control of the federal government.
“I was in office as governor when they had governors trying to allocate energy supplies in the OPEC crisis of ‘73 and ‘74. I can tell you, you don’t want the government running energy. The free market may not be perfect, but it doesn’t screw things up like the government does.”
Conflicting reports can be heard almost daily about what direction the cost of fuel will head in the months to come. Bond doesn’t put much stock in any fuel price forecasts.
“If we continue to cap our supply there’s no telling how high it could go,” he said. “I would trust somebody forecasting next week’s weather in Missouri than any smart guy in Washington forecasting how high the price of oil would go. All the smart people are usually dead wrong.
“OPEC members are saying it ought to be $60 or $70 (per barrel) rather than $125 or $130 and that knocked the oil price down. There is a lot of future guessing going on and nobody can tell what the future plans are going to be, but if more people are talking about producing oil and even OPEC is admitting it should come down, that is a hope that it should come down. But that’s a hope. That’s us begging other countries. We need to show that we’re in control and start producing the oil and gas we need. Then we’re in control, we’re not going hat in hand to other countries.”
Bond, who says the U.S. has the potential to be totally energy independent, reports that the government is investing in new forms of fuel.
“Right now the DOE (Department of Energy) is spending about $1 billion on developing the technology for extracting cellulosic ethanol from wood,” he said. “I will continue to support more and greater use of federal funds on research of renewable fuels and all the other fuels we need.”