Editor’s note: The following appeared in the May 19 issue of The Catholic Spirit, diocesan newspaper of Metuchen, N.J.

The rising price of gas is eliciting a national groan — complaints are being heard from every segment of the socioeconomic and cultural spectrum. One morning news anchor bemoaned the fact that it took $65 to fill up the tank on her SUV; families are changing plans for vacation, allowing for the higher price of gas.

It doesn’t matter how much anyone makes in wages — we resent having to spend nearly twice as much for gas as we did not long ago. It’s making us have to think about how we use our gas and look for ways to save. And we’re not pleased.

But for one segment of society, the soaring prices represent more than a pinch at the pump. The cost to fill up would be better described as a staggering blow that has the capacity to cripple a person’s ability to work, adversely affect a family’s quality of life and plunge them all into deeper financial distress.

These are not the folks who have to obsess over the quality of the hotel they can afford on this summer’s vacation — they are not fortunate enough to be able to afford a vacation. They are not bemoaning the high cost of filling the tank of some high-priced SUV that is nearly the size of their living quarters. The vehicles they need to keep fueled are often more gas efficient, but less comfortable and less reliable.

Who are these individuals? They are the working poor, for whom a customary part replacement on their beat-up old cars can mean that the bills don’t get paid that week. No longer qualifying for government assistance because of cutthroat legislative changes over the past decade, they are living week to week. The need to stay home from work for a day to care for a sick child compromises their ability to put food on the table and could cost them their jobs.

The money that they need to buy gas has to come from somewhere and since there is no surplus, it is taken from their sustenance. The pinch at the pump requires, therefore, that they scrape by with even less than they had before. Health care needs go untended; children do not get the resources they need to perform well in school and the cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

Yet, in all the discussion about the cost of fuel and the energy bill that is before Congress, these folks are invisible. The bill that recently passed in the House and is now being tossed about in the Senate offers plenty of perks for "big energy" in the way of subsidies and tax breaks, but is expected to have little impact on the price at the pump and our overall consumption of fuel. Even the bone that is thrown to the consumers in the way of rebates for energy-efficient appliances won’t help people who can’t make these purchases in the first place.

The Senate needs to scrap the existing energy bill and craft a new one that will offer far better relief to those who are most impacted by this crisis. Extending tax credits to employers who provide car pool transportation to employees would be a good first step in helping the working poor and reducing consumption overall. Tax credits for setting up telecommuting with employees, even if only for half the week, would also contribute to our moving away from our dire dependency on fuel.

At the same time, our elected officials should ensure that any measures to create and develop new forms of energy, such as nuclear and soy- or sugar-based materials, also establishes a new stream of job opportunities that will allow the less fortunate to better help themselves.