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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, In the spring of 2011, the retail prices of motor
3fuels in Illinois have touched or hit record levels; and
4 WHEREAS, On May 4, 2011, the average sales price of
5gasoline-based motor fuel in Illinois was $4.31 per gallon; and
6 WHEREAS, These retail prices include the substantial
7burden of motor fuel excise taxes, State sales taxes, local
8sales taxes, and environmental remediation taxes, which have
9been added to the underlying burden of worldwide crude oil
10prices; and
11 WHEREAS, The current price of crude oil is in excess of
12$110 per 42-gallon barrel, driven upward by political upheavals
13in the Middle East and adjacent regions of the Eastern
14Hemisphere; and
15 WHEREAS, The high price of motor fuels threatens prospects
16for Illinois employment and economic recovery by diverting
17consumer spending from discretionary purchases to motor fuel;
18demand for motor fuel is highly price-inelastic, as once people
19take up residence in a house, they are tied in to a pattern of
20driving to and from the places where they work, shop, and visit
21their relatives and friends, and cannot easily change their

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1patterns; therefore, be it
2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
4we urge Governor Pat Quinn to take action immediately to
5comprehensively lower the price of motor fuel in all geographic
6regions of Illinois on a time frame adequate to prevent
7Illinois falling into renewed recessionary conditions; and be
8it further
9 RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Quinn and President Barack
10Obama to take immediate steps to reverse their current policies
11regarding the price of motor fuel and to cooperate on new
12policies to increase motor fuel supplies in Illinois, reduce
13pressure on Illinois motor fuel prices, and inform the Illinois
14public of the steps being taken to reduce price pressure on
15motor fuel; and be it further
16 RESOLVED, That, based upon the current political upheavals
17in the Middle East, consequent disruptions to the world supply
18of crude oil, and negative consequences of these disruptions to
19the fragile U.S. economic recovery, we urge President Obama and
20the United States Department of Energy to release part of the
21U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve for summer 2011 refinery
22throughput and consumer end-use; and be it further

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1 RESOLVED, That, based upon the current record or
2near-record price of motor fuel in Illinois, we urge the
3President of the United States and the Administrator of the
4United States Environmental Protection Agency to suspend
5implementation of all federal Clean Air Act non-attainment
6rules that affect the chemical composition and market price of
7motor fuel sold in the Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis,
8Missouri metropolitan areas; and be it further
9 RESOLVED, That we commend our neighbor country, the nation
10of Canada, for its aggressive work in expanding crude oil
11production from one of the largest under-utilized sources of
12fossil fuels in the world, the oil sands deposits of the
13province of Alberta, which possess estimated reserves of 1.7
14trillion barrels of bitumen, from which crude oil can be
15manufactured; and be it further
16 RESOLVED, That we call upon United States oil refiners to
17continue their work to rebuild their refineries to refine
18bitumen-based crude oil into consumer petroleum products and
19commend the example provided by Canada to those United States
20policymakers who have the power to decide upon policies that
21govern the drilling, exploitation, and enjoyment of crude oil
22resources here in the United States; and be it further
23 RESOLVED, That we direct the Illinois Commission on

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1Government Forecasting and Accountability to conduct an
2objective, non-political examination of our policy of charging
3"ad valorem" Illinois sales taxes on motor fuel, thereby
4raising these prices well above world spot market prices for
5gasoline, and to report its findings to the Speaker of the
6Illinois House of Representatives, the Illinois House
7Republican Leader, the President of the Illinois Senate, and
8the Illinois Senate Republican Leader, and for this study to be
9concluded and the report transferred no later than September
1030, 2011; and be it further
11 RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
12presented to the President of the United States, the Secretary
13of the United States Department of Energy, the Administrator of
14the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the
15Governor of Illinois, and the executive director of the
16Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and
17Accountability.