The Daily Reflector: Posturing will not provide real relief at the pump
The Daily Reflector
Kay Hagan
July 20, 2008
Political posturing and inflated rhetoric won’t lower gas prices or help our nation provide for our energy independence and security. But that’s business as usual in Washington, where snake oil salesmen provide election year fodder while middle class families struggle to make ends meet.
We need Washington to end the partisanship, stop the bickering and get to work.
While you and I are paying more than $4.10 for a gallon of gas, straining our budgets and stretching our wallets, the Big Oil and Gas companies are reaping the rewards with record profits reaching $500 billion.
Gas prices haven’t always been this high, and certainly the seemingly endless uptick of late isn’t something that happened overnight.
The people I talk to around North Carolina know there’s a reason gas prices have gotten out of control: Special interests like the big oil and gas companies have too much power in Washington, and that’s because politicians like Sen. Dole have given it to them.
Not many people know that at a time they’re making record profits and we’re paying record prices, our government is giving them more than $17 billion in tax breaks. Sen. Dole supports that, and I think it’s just plain wrong.
The debate to this point has been high on rhetoric and low on results. While more drilling may be appropriate, the oil companies should start by using the 68 million acres of federal land they already have under lease before asking us for more.
No one in this campaign has said more than me about the need to get gas prices under control, but I’m fundamentally opposed to any solution that puts oil company profits before what’s best for North Carolina’s families and small businesses.
I know what it means to bring relief to high prices at the pump because I co-sponsored legislation in the state Senate that successfully capped the gas tax in North Carolina.
To get gas prices under control in the short term across the nation, I have supported halting deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increasing pressure on OPEC to increase supplies and cracking down on speculators and price gougers who are driving up and artificially inflating the price of oil.
The U.S. Senate will consider a bill next week which will curtail speculation in the energy futures market to help keep the price of oil down. Congress must pass this bill and the president must sign it.
Ultimately, though, the long term solution to our energy crisis requires forward-thinking ideas and long-term planning.
Sen. Dole has been in Washington for decades and has had years to get this right. She simply hasn’t.
The plan I put forward months ago calls for repealing the billions in tax breaks she has given to Big Oil and Gas and invest them instead in renewable energy projects to help create jobs here in North Carolina that can’t be outsourced.
Gas was $1.52 per gallon in 2003 when Elizabeth Dole took office, and even then people were concerned about how high it could go. It’s now upwards of $4.10 per gallon.
It’s not too late to turn this around but we need to stop posturing and start pursuing real relief for middle class families in both the long and short term.
N.C. Sen. Kay Hagan is the Democratic Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate.
