04/28/06 No short term relief from fuel prices

Everyone is talking about it but it seems nothing is being done to curb the demand for oil and the high price of gasoline and diesel. OTTER "We're all to blame. Six years ago when we could have opened up the wildlife area in Alaska we didn't do it." That's Idaho Congressman Butch Otter. Global supply and demand determines the price of oil but the risk factor is an industry consideration. The threat of terrorism and Middle East unrest adds to the record high prices according to Purdue University's Dr. Otto Doering. DOERING "Industry people are saying that this risk factor may be five to eight dollars a barrel." Otter says agriculture producers also face higher fertilizer prices thanks to the cost of natural gas which partly contributed to the closure of all five US ammonia plants. OTTER "We're importing another strategic material so we're once again vulnerable on another material that we really need for our farm economy." The US hasn't built a new gasoline refinery since 1976. However, nearly three dozen ethanol production plants are under construction today and that industry seems poised for huge expansion in the next five years. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott