Speaking to the Rotary Club of Missoula, Rehberg said the lack of action on an energy plan isn't the only reason Americans should be upset about the early adjournment.
“Normally, we would have the appropriations process done by the Fourth of July,” Rehberg said, “and they
the process.”
Rehberg is a Republican; congressional leadership is Democratic.
Some are saying pending appropriations measures may pass after Oct. 1. Rehberg was not that optimistic, predicting those bills won't go through before January 2009, and that this year's budget won't be dealt with until April.
“The people of American ought to be pretty upset about that,” Rehberg said. “When you think about all of the things that are not being accomplished, one of the reasons we're trying to draw attention to the fact that Congress is not in session right now is (that) you're all paying the high gas prices.”
Rehberg also said if Washington politicians truly want to be honest with Americans they would be emphasizing that “we're a fossil fuel-based society.”
“We don't want to be,” Rehberg added. “We want the alternatives like wind and solar and geothermal and biomass. Those are the sexy issues. Those are the ones everybody wants to talk about. And that's great.
“But we're not there yet.”
Rehberg said the conversion to alternative energy sources will be extremely painful if Congress doesn't address the current need for traditional fossil fuels.
“I want those to be the short-term solutions as well,” Rehberg went on. “But don't kid yourselves. There is nothing else you can put in your car today other than gasoline or diesel.
“It's a fact of life, you're going to have to have some kind of a fossil-fuel-based society,” Rehberg continued. “Energy drives our economy. Without an energy policy in this country, we will find ourselves with the brownouts and the shortages and the gas lines and the high heating and cooling costs.”
Rehberg said the shortage of natural gas in this country is getting little attention right now, but will become more evident as winter comes. He added that one reason for the shortage is that natural gas is being burned to create electricity because the construction of coal-fired generating plants is consistently blocked.
“That isn't very bright,” Rehberg said. “That's an inefficient use of natural gas. And it creates the situation where utilities are competing against homeowners for the same thing the homeowners would like to put through their furnaces.”
Rehberg chided what he called the East Coast-West Coast mentality that fights drilling for oil and natural gas off those shores - while the heavily populated areas on both ends of the country use up tremendous amounts of both products as the costs continue to escalate nationwide.
“To compound the problem they're coming back to you, the taxpayer, and saying as the heating costs go up, our poor can't afford to pay for it, so we're going to tax Americans more to subsidize low-income energy assistance,” Rehberg said.
“And there isn't a person in this room that would not vote for low-income energy assistance.”
Rehberg, referring to a guest editorial published this week in the Missoulian, cited his support of a comprehensive energy plan in response to the accusation that he's in the pocket of the oil companies.
“(We need to) spend a little time understanding the complexities of a comprehensive plan rather than trying to pick winners and losers, because if we pick winners and losers, we'll all lose,” Rehberg concluded.
Rehberg also told Rotarians that, while he still believes the energy issue will be solved, he's even more concerned about the negative impact on the country of illegal immigration and the rising cost of health care.
He also said people should not have been surprised by Russia's invasion of Georgia because of “the constant irritation on the part of the former Soviet Union with the former socialist republics that are successfully trying to create democracies.”
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