High Gas Prices Making It Harder for Americans to Find Jobs; House GOP Taking Action

Congressman John Boehner
May 24, 2011

As job creation in America barely limps along, todays Chicago Tribune reports that gas prices are making the job search even more difficult and expensive for unemployed Americans.  According to the report:

Before a recent job interview, Alicia Madison climbed into her 2001 Ford Explorer and realized her gas tank was empty, just like her bank account.

Unable to afford gas for the 25-mile round trip from her Glen Ellyn home to the Naperville business, Madison was forced to reschedule. She now relies on gas vouchers issued by a nonprofit agency to drive to interviews.

Madison, a certified nursing assistant unemployed three months, is desperate to return to work, but not desperate enough to take a job too far from home with gas prices at record highs.

I have to be conscious of where I’m looking and how far it’s going to be, said Madison, 23, a single mother on food stamps. I don’t want to work just to pay for gas.

Her dilemma underscores the problem that steep gas prices have created for the unemployed: They need income to fill their tank but can’t afford to take jobs with long commutes.

At the same time that job seekers are finding it harder to secure work, small businesses are struggling with higher costs and lower profits, meaning fewer jobs for the 13.7 million unemployed Americans.  Heres just a sample of what small businesses across the country are facing:

• FL Small Business Owner Dana Miller: If It Doesnt Improve, Im Kind of Worried About Getting Through the Summer. If gas prices dont drop soon, Dana Miller, a Naples business owner, wonders whether her business will survive the summer. If it doesnt improve, Im kind of worried about getting through the summer, Miller said. The summer months are the slowest in the industry. Come June 15, it all shuts down. Miller isnt alone. The higher gas prices are draining profits for business owners across Southwest Florida. (Naples Daily News, 5/21/11)

• CT Small Business Owner Bill Fontaine: I Cant Afford to Hire Another Driver or Buy Another Truck. Small business owner Bill Fontaine, owner of Fontaine Mechanical, Heating and Air Conditioning in Bristol, says his business suffers from the lack of a strong domestic energy policy. He wants to expand his business, but cant. Fontaine says the cost at the gas pump is draining company profits. Fontaine says he wont lay anyone off, but rising gas prices keep him from expanding his business. I cant afford to hire another driver or buy another truck, he says. (The Bristol Press, 5/16/11)

Republicans are listening to Americans and will continue fighting for solutions to address high gas prices and help the economy create jobs through the American Energy Initiative.  Here are some of the steps the new House majority is taking to move that effort forward this week:

• Today, the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy & Power held a hearing on the North American-Made Energy Security Act, a bill that will require the Obama Administration to make a determination by November on whether or not it will allow the Keystone XL pipeline expansion to move forward.  According to the committee, the expansion would more than double the Keystone systems capacity, allowing 1.29 million barrels per day of Canadian crude to enter U.S. markets. 

• On Tuesday, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a hearing on Pain at the Pump: Policies that Suppress Domestic Production of Oil and Gas. The committee will have the opportunity to question EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson about the Obama Administration policies that are hampering American energy production and driving gas prices up even further. 

• On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy & Power will consider two American Energy Initiative bills.  The Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act would require analysis of the impact proposed EPA regulations will have on gas prices, economic competitiveness and job creation in America. The Jobs and Energy Permitting Act would help end EPA permitting delays and unlock an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil in Alaska. 

To learn more about the American Energy Initiative and follow the progress of these, and other bills that will be introduced in the coming weeks, stop by and like the American Energy Initiative on Facebook: http://facebook.com/americanenergy.