
Congressman Dan Lungren
held a Town Hall meeting in Ione Monday night where he spoke about gas prices
and offshore drilling. With gas prices expected to go over five
dollars a gallon or more, the questions facing most Americans is how to obtain
more oil and why aren’t we spending more money on renewable energy
research? President Bush and Republican
presidential nominee John McCain are pushing to lift the 26-year ban on
offshore drilling, and have received recent criticism from Governor
Schwarzenegger and environmentalists. Many experts agree that offshore drilling
will not immediately bring gas prices down and may effect the environment. At a
recent global warming conference, Schwarzenegger stated that “anyone who tells you (that offshore drilling) would bring down gas
prices any time soon is blowing smoke." Lungren supports
lifting the ban on offshore drilling, stating that due to upgraded technologies,
the risks of polluting the environment are greatly reduced. When asked about looking at renewable sources
of energy, Lungren emphasized the importance of looking at “all the
possibilities,” including wind and solar power, biofuels, and more efficient
hybrid vehicles, as well as searching for more oil sources in the U.S..
Lungren
stated that oil is currently, and will remain, a necessity in our nation for
years to come, and “reducing the demand for oil is an
important long-term goal that will reduce energy costs and benefit the
environment.” Along with supporting
offshore drilling, Lungren proposes bringing back “onshore” drilling, as well
as bringing “new refineries online” and supporting a “gas tax holiday,” all of
which Lungren proposes could reduce gas prices as much as two dollars per
gallon. As for vehicle renewable
energy, Lungren proposed providing monetary incentives to car companies for
engineering the most efficient hybrid vehicle and gave as an example “the first
company to create a car that gets 100 miles per gallon.” “I’m tired of giving these companies all this
money and guessing on which one is going to work,” Lungren stated. Look for an
exclusive TSPN interview with Lungren from his recent presentation at IoneCity
Hall. The interview will play tomorrow on our
noon news.