Arlington, TX – With no relief in sight for the rapidly rising price of groceries, gas and other necessities, several Members of Congress from North Texas met with a local company to hear how families and businesses are being impacted.  Reps. Joe Barton, Michael Burgess, Kay Granger and Pete Sessions toured a Tom Thumb grocery store, met with company leaders and spoke with customers. It was another chance for the Representatives to hear the real impact the energy mess is having on all aspects of people’s lives.

 

The group then spoke to the media highlighting energy plans to bring costs under control by increasing the supply of American energy, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging investment in alternative and renewable energy technologies.

 

After touring the store, Congressman Barton (R-Arlington) said, “Republicans introduced a package of bills recently that would lower prices by increasing the production of American-made energy in an environmentally-safe way. This includes the exploration of next generation oil, natural gas, and coal and the production of advanced alternative fuels like cellulosic and clean coal-to-liquids. In fact ground breaking research in this field is being conducted right now at UTA. This plan does more than just lower gasoline prices – it lowers the price for all energy from the electricity you use to cool you home to the natural gas you use to cook.”

 

Congresswoman Kay Granger pointed out that the pain extends past the gas pump and into the grocery aisle.

 

"Americans are asking for help with the high price of gasoline, the rising cost of food, and the inescapable increase in cost-of-living.  However, families are not the only one's hurt by the rising energy prices.  Communities and the tourism industry are particularly impacted by rising energy cost, small businesses with employees who can't work from home and other businesses that are unable to raise their prices to offset additional energy cost are feeling the affect as their profits shrink leaving them vulnerable to potentially unavoidable financial disasters.”

 

Rep. Michael C. Burgess, M.D. (R-Lewisville) acknowledged the anger being felt by North Texas consumers and then laid out a simple road map to lower gas prices.

 

"Talk to Texans at their local grocery store or gas station like this one and they’ll tell you they’re honking mad about prices and hostile nations having the upper hand because they produce oil. We can ease the pain at the pump and lessen our dependence foreign oil by taking some reasonable and realistic steps that I call relaxing the three R’s: re-examining biofuel mandates; rolling back the diesel tax, and, building refineries," said Rep. Burgess.

 

Congressman Sessions (R-Dallas) also addressed the nation’s unnecessary dependence on foreign oil.

 

“From rising food costs to soaring gas prices, North Texans are burdened with cost of living increases, limiting their ability to make ends meet and invest for the future. For current gas price relief and long-term energy independence, Congress must increase supply by opening domestic resources to energy production and decrease demand by prioritizing energy efficiency and alternative, renewable energy development. The prosperity of our nation and its economy depends on it.”

 

Each of the Representatives also applauded the Tom Thumb and other retailers for their efforts to lower shoppers’ bills by offering discounts when possible.

 

The Members of Congress said they would take the lessons learned during the store tour and share them with their colleagues in Washington as they continue to fight for energy policy reform.