(Manchester, NH) —Former Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen visited voters at Roland's Family Restaurant and Variety Store in Nashua today to discuss the rising cost of food as part of her Middle Class Matters tour.
"As prices continue to climb at an alarming rate, America's families are struggling to put food on their dinner tables every night," Shaheen said. "Not only is reckless speculation on food costs by billion-dollar hedge funds driving up the price of food, but skyrocketing gas prices mean increased transportation costs – and New Hampshire families are absorbing that extra cost at the grocery store.
"However, there are steps we can take to protect the market from price manipulation and increase tax incentives for the development of wood-based fuels that will help end our dependence on foreign oil, won't impact the price of food and will create jobs in New Hampshire."
Shaheen proposed the following steps to help protect commodities like oil and food from price manipulation and shift tax incentives from corn-based ethanol to wood-based ethanol:
Crack down on excessive speculation in agricultural markets by lowering the number of futures contracts that traders who are not in the food business can buy, and by limiting exemptions that allow traders who are not in the food business to speculate on the price of agricultural commodities. Tightening the restrictions on food price speculation will lessen speculators' ability to artificially raise the price of food.
Increase tax incentives for wood-based ethanol and reduce subsidies for corn-based ethanol. Shaheen supports investing money in exploring methods being developed right here in New Hampshire to use forest byproducts to create cellulosic ethanol. Cellulosic, or wood-based, ethanol won't have an impact on the global food supply and, given New Hampshire's abundant forest resources, expanded use of cellulosic ethanol will create jobs right here in New Hampshire.
Take significant steps to bring down the cost of oil, which is driving up the cost of food by increasing the cost of transportation and making it more expensive for farmers to run their equipment. Congress should take action by:
*Releasing 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help increase supply
*Closing the Enron loophole that allows Wall Street traders to gamble on the price of oil, artificially driving it up in an attempt to make huge profits
*Amending our anti-trust laws to allow OPEC to be held accountable for price-fixing
*Demanding that oil refineries, most of which are run by the big oil companies, increase their production of oil
*Creating an Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force to investigate allegations of oil and gas market manipulation and fraud, similar to the Corporate Fraud Task Force established in 2002 in the wake of the Enron scandals.
