Residents to Bishop: What’s Up With Gas Prices?

U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop was the guest speaker at Wednesday’s Chamber of Commerce luncheon held at the Veteran’s of Foreign War hall.

Bishop spoke on a variety of topics including national debt, government spending and rising gas prices with the later being the hot topic for most audience members with gas having surpassed the $4 mark.

“Oil companies, I think all corporations, have a responsibility to be responsible citizens,” said Bishop referring to the recent Senate hearings challenging Big 5 oil company profits.

According to Bishop, rising gas prices is a speculative driven problem.

“We have a set of policies that are encouraging the type of behavior you see at the pump,” he said. Bishop filed a bill that would take $3.5 billion a year of tax subsidies provided to the major oil companies and eliminate them. The Senate had a similar bill that was voted on Tuesday and was defeated.

“Why don’t we regulate it and put it back on the commodities market then? We have commoditized other utilities,” said one audience member. Bishop said he is asking Congress to crack down on speculation.

Questions on the gas tax were raised as well. “The government receives 0.18 cents per gallon and does nothing for it,” said Alex Barnych, an investor and counselor with David Lerner and Associates. “They (the government) are taking as much taxes in my house as they have ever taken.”

Bishop explained that much of the investments to our infrastructure come from that tax.

“The whole oil debate, there are only two numbers you need to know; we have two percent of the world’s reserves and we use twenty-five percent of the world's oil. Those are the only two numbers you need to know…that says that we cannot drill our way out of this problem not short term, not long term,” said Bishop.

Kings Park Post Office employee, Dennis Guinaw came to the meeting specifically to hear Bishop speak. “It was the first time I heard him speak. I thought it was good. I thought it was very informative.”