Welch holds Town Hall forum over the phone

By Dan McLean, Burlington Free Press Staff Writer
June 11, 2008

With gas prices above $4 a gallon and fuel price records being set routinely, Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., held a "Telephone Town Hall" meeting Tuesday night -- inviting Vermonters to speak with him for an hour about fuel prices and national energy policy.
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Welch billed the format as a first for reaching constituents.

Callers asked Welch, who was speaking from his Washington office, about a wide range of issues including:

Whether weight limits should be increased to reduce truck trips.

Whether more domestic oil drilling should be conducted.

Whether the Iraqi government should be required to use its oil revenue to repay the United States for war reconstruction.

About using wood as a supplemental home heating fuel.

And the politics of windfall profit tax and how to clamp down on speculation in the oil markets.

A gallon of regular unleaded averaged set records in the United States on Tuesday.

In Vermont, a gallon of unleaded cost $4.02 -- 32 percent more than the $3.04 it cost one year ago, according the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Diesel fuel cost $4.92 -- $2 a gallon or 69 percent more than last year.

Heating fuels in the state hit record levels: heating oil is fetching $4.46 a gallon and a gallon of kerosene is priced at $4.76 a gallon, according to the Vermont Fuel Price Report for June.

Welch welcomed Vermonters to the "live question and answer session." His staff screened the calls and Welch introduced callers by their first name and their hometown.

A total of 4,255 people dialed in to hear at least a portion of the phone conference; the peak number of callers on the line at one time was 909, Welch spokesman Andrew Savage said. Seventeen people had their questions answered.

In response to the questions, Welch said he supports a windfall tax on oil companies, particularly to help fund heating oil assistance programs. A measure that would establish a windfall profits tax stalled in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday after failing to tally 60 votes to prevent a filibuster.

Regarding weight restrictions, Welch said "we probably could raise some of the weight limits" on interstate highways to help Vermont's truckers.

More drilling is not needed in the U.S., Welch said. Just 28 percent of the leases oil companies have on federal land are being used to drill for oil, he said.

America will not be able to "drill our way out," he said, noting moves to alternative energies must be made, he said.

A caller named Dave from East Montpelier told Welch: "We have been blessed, or cursed, with cheap oil for years. And we are on the downslide," he said. "We have reached peak oil ... and we will not be able to find an alternative."

Welch was less pessimistic.

"I don't see it as doom and gloom," Welch said. "I see it as a challenge that we are accepting."

Contact Dan McLean at 651-4877 or dmclean@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com