For Immediate Release
March 31, 2008
Contact: Anna Gustafson
717-787-2637
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HARRISBURG – Taking his effort to provide relief from the rising costs of gas and home heating fuel to Washington, D.C., Senator James J. Rhoades (R-29) today introduced Senate Resolution 267 urging the Congress to do its part by enacting legislation that would requires greater degrees of transparency in the energy commodities markets.

"The cost of gas and home heating fuel is a national crisis and we need the Congress to help us solve it," Rhoades said. "Controlling the price of fuel at the source, at the suppliers' level, it an important part of the solution.

"To get that done, Congress needs to act now."

The resolution is the fourth in a series of initiatives Rhoades has introduced to deal with the home heating crisis. He has recently introduced legislation to freeze fuel prices in Pennsylvania, and legislation that provides $84 million in home heating rebates to senior citizens and other needy Pennsylvanians as well as a resolution urging Congress to enact price controls at the federal level. Senate Resolution 267 is aimed at reminding the Congress that controlling price increases from suppliers is a federal issue over which the Pennsylvania General Assembly does not have jurisdiction.

According to Rhoades, energy suppliers earned $228 billion in profits between 2001 and 2005.

Rhoades emphasized that his resolution urges the Congress to finally consider legislation that would require a greater degree of transparency in the energy commodities markets that control the per barrel price of crude oil and other energy sources.  This legislation has been approved by the United States Senate and has been stalled in a Senate-House Conference committee.

"If this is something that we could do here in Harrisburg, I would be doing it," Rhoades said. "But this is a federal question and the Congress needs to finally do something about it.

"We need to give the people the help they need – right now."