Price Tackles Rising Gas Costs on Local Business

The rising price of gasoline is no longer breaking news. Each week, headlines across America tell readers that the cost of fuel has risen to another record-breaking high. Everyone is feeling the pinch at the pump, from soccer moms to local business owners.

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA-6) met with local business owners and managers earlier today at the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce offices in Alpharetta, to discuss how the rising price of fuel is affecting their business practices.

“Everybody is in the transportation business,” said Price.

Price took time to hear the concern of every business owner at the meeting who all expressed concern over the cost of fuel and its affect on both the cost of business and the loss of employees.

Tommy McFarland, who owns McFarland’s Foods in Canton, said his company has seen a lot of changes over the years, including the rising costs of the items he sells in his store. But no price change, said McFarland, has been as devastating to his businesses as the rising cost of gasoline.

“Nothing has affected us like the increase in fuel,” he said. “This has been the first time I have laid anyone off.”

Other businesses owners at the chamber meeting agreed. One business owner said people are quitting their jobs because they can not afford to drive to work. Another said employees are selling vacation time to pay for gas.

“This is not just affecting your bottom line, this is affecting your people,” said Price.

Price said he believes there are many solutions to this crisis, including conservation, alternative fuel and offshore drilling.

“We are the only nation in the world with a coast line without drilling,” said Price.

Also, according to Price, only five percent of the nation’s federal land that is available for lease to oil companies is currently being utilized.

Lee Lemke, a representative of the Georgia Movers Association expressed his desire to see offshore drilling.

“I firmly believe that if we open our reserve we would see a drop in prices,” he said. “We are perpetuating this by not allowing the use of resources available to us.”

Last month, President Bush traveled to Saudi Arabia to lobby for a boost in oil production to assist in high prices. Saudi Arabian Minister of petroleum and mineral resources Ali al-Naimi said his state’s production would rise when the market justified it.

“To see our president go to Saudi Arabia and beg is an embarrassment,” said Price.

More than a year ago Price introduced the Finding the Ultimate Energy Lifeline Act, which will form a commission to decrease the consumption of foreign oil to less than 25 percent by 2015.

However, Price admits that he is facing an uphill battle with his position. He said the Democrats proposed a windfall tax that would collect billions in tax dollars from oil companies, which could be used towards technology to create alternative fuels.

Price said that in the short term that would do nothing to aid in rising gas prices. The Republicans have drafted a bill that calls for offshore drilling among other efforts, and could lower gas prices by $2 per gallon. Price said a vote on the energy bill never reached the floor.

“The crisis we have is a crisis of leadership that won’t allow these issues to come to the floor,” he said.

Price did however point out that the current oil crisis did not just develop over the past 18 months, it has been brewing since the 1973 gas crisis.

“During the last oil crisis we were 20 percent reliant [on foreign fuel], now we are 60 percent reliant,” he said.

If there is a silver lining to the current oil crisis it could be the use, and potential expansion, of state and local transit systems.

Last month Gov. Sonny Perdue announced his plans for a expansion of the state public transit systems called “Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today,” or IT3.

The governor’s plan includes the extension of the rail system from the Lovejoy line, and the state funding of an additional 28 Georgia Regional Transit Authority (GRTA) buses.

Some say the governor’s plan is too little too late. The governor didn’t push for a transportation plan during the winter legislative session and a regional transportation funding mechanism, failed to pass.

Brandon Beach, CEO of the Greater North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, sits on the GRTA board. According to Beach the bus lines have seen an overwhelming amount of growth since the price of gas reached $4.

“The GRTA Express [bus line] is at standing room only,” he said.

Ann Hanlon, COO of the North Fulton Community Improvement District (COD), said that businesses are demanding a shuttle system to carry people from the North Springs bus line in Sandy Springs to office parks in North Fulton. An effort, the CID is looking into.

“The amount of people using public transportation has increased in the past two months. We are already at the tipping point,” she said.

Whatever path the state and federal governments take, there will be no quick fix to transportation woes.

“We have not acted in foresight, that is why we are at $4.09 a gallon,” said Price.

For more on Perdue's TP3 Plan visit: http://www.johnscreekpost.com/node/1061