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..