Tennessee: Corker: More Drilling an Interim Solution to Oil Woes
By Herman Wang, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Jun. 17–WASHINGTON — Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he does not believe drilling for more oil will single-handedly satisfy the country’s energy needs and bring gas prices down, but it could be an interim solution until alternative fuels become widely available and profitable.
“I do not believe that our solution is just to drill, drill, drill,” he said. “I see fossil fuels in our country as a bridge to the future while we are making investments in technology.”
Sen. Corker’s comments came at an energy policy forum in response to a comment from fellow panelist Rep. Jane Harmon, D-Calif., who said Republicans keep demanding to “drill, drill, drill” for oil, while Democrats favor a policy to “invest, invest, invest in renewables.”
“There’s an opportunity to move much faster” on developing alternative energy, Rep. Harmon said. “We can do much more, and the American people believe that.”
The panel discussion, titled “Political Crossroads: How The 2008 Presidential & Congressional Campaigns Are Shaping Energy Policy and Reform Initiatives,” was hosted by Newsweek magazine and Shell oil company.
In discussing energy legislation, the panel, which also included Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., agreed that the policy differences between Republican presidential nominee John McCain and Democratic nominee Barack Obama on environmental and energy issues are not major.
For instance, both support the concept of a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program and some offshore drilling for oil in places where drilling is already occurring.
The lawmaker panelists also said the two parties support many of the same goals on energy policy, such as automobile fuel standards, nuclear energy development and alternative fuels incentives, but only differ on the specifics of how the initiatives are paid for and administered.
“There’s a lot of commonalities,” Sen. Corker said. “My hope is … that we have the opportunity to develop policies post-election to bring those camps together.”
Rep. Cole, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, a fundraising arm for House races, said energy policy is complicated by the fact that the United States is no longer the world’s only major consumer of oil.
“We’ve thought we’re immune from what the other countries do, like India and China,” he said. “We can’t look at this in isolation.”
—–
To see more of the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesfreepress.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.