Summer is here, and undoubtedly gas prices are weighing heavily on your mind. Your daily commute, shuttling the kids to soccer practice and summer camp, that family vacation you’ve been looking forward to all year – all these activities are impacted by rising prices at the pump.

A recent Heritage Foundation report predicts that gas prices in Georgia will average $3.26 a gallon next year, rising to $6.23 a gallon by 2016 – that is, unless we take action now to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil.  Here’s some shocking news: U.S. dependence on foreign oil has doubled in the past 30 years, and energy imports now make up one their of America’s trade deficit. 

American needs greater energy independence, and we need it now.  This requires the right kind of reforms: increasing domestic oil production while at the same time encouraging the use of alternative fuels. 

I recently surveyed 11th District residents about gas prices.  Here are the solutions that were most popular with your friends and neighbors:

– Make greater use of bio-diesel and ethanol fuel
– Increase refinery capacity
– Drill in a small portion of the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. 

I support each one of these reforms, and am working to ensure Congress takes action on this critical issue.  Elected officials can not sit idle while citizens go broke at the pump.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks as I detail each of aforementioned energy initiatives. 

As always, please feel free to share your thoughts and concerns with me by clicking HERE. You can also click HERE to find out the latest gas prices in Georgia.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 9:40 am and is filed under 11th Congressional District, Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.