Dole's Decision To Drill Off The Coast in North Carolina Helps Big Oil; Hurts Consumers, State Tourism, Military

June 27, 2008

GREENSBORO, NC – Again choosing her millionaire friends at Big Oil and Gas companies over North Carolina families, Elizabeth Dole committed a classic flip-flop yesterday when she voiced her support for drilling off the coast of North Carolina, which would do nothing to decrease record high gas prices in the short-term, and would actually serve to increase the record profits oil companies are currently realizing. Previously voicing concern for North Carolina’s military presence off the coast, and the state’s environment and tourism industry, Dole cast those concerns aside for an election year ploy championed by George Bush and John McCain.

“Elizabeth Dole has continued to do Big Oil and Gas’s bidding at every turn, to the detriment of middle class families – like the ones I’ve talked to across the state – who are having to dig deep and scrimp and save to afford gas prices today,” State Senator and U.S. Senate Candidate Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) said. “The fact of the matter is that empty rhetoric and false promises won’t lower gas prices. Instead, this will only serve Big Oil and Gas’s bottom line, which is being padded by people like Elizabeth Dole.”

According to a report by the Bush Administration’s-own Energy Information Administration, off-coastal drilling would do little to lower gas prices until at least 2030, and any new shore deposits now found would typically not reach the market until 2023. Drilling off the coast of North Carolina would negatively impact the tourism industry, a $16.5 billion boon to the state’s economy, and would make North Carolina’s coast susceptible to harm if Virginia or South Carolina partake in off-shore drilling.

Elizabeth Dole’s own concerns about harm to North Carolina’s military outfits – which she has decided to cast aside in favor of her new position – were validated by Bob Arnold, the chairman of the Eglin Mission Enforcement Committee for Eglin Air Force Base on the Gulf Coast in Florida, who said that permanent above-surface platforms in the coastal waters off Florida “bother us” and there’s “nothing they can do” if the oil platforms become permanent fixtures in the water.

“Elizabeth Dole’s decision to support this rhetoric-based guise won’t do anything to lower gas prices in the short-term, does nothing to help us reinvest in renewable energy and create clean, green jobs in North Carolina, and will actually harm our state’s tourism industry and the ability of our military to effectively do their job,” said Hagan Communications Director Colleen Flanagan. “The only people who win in this equation are Big Oil and Gas, who already have been given billions by Elizabeth Dole. When is she going to start working for the people who actually elected her?”

To help lower gas prices in the short-term, Elizabeth Dole could have voted to:
· End the Enron-loophole that lets speculators add $30-$50 a barrel to the price of gas; Kay supports ending this loophole.
· Support a measure which would have ensured our regulators have the tools they need to crack down on price-gougers; Kay supports this effort.

Against investing in a longer-term solution, Dole has refused to vote to repeal the $17 billion in tax breaks she gave to Big Oil and Gas and reinvest those funds into renewable energy that creates clean jobs in North Carolina.

In 2003 when Dole took office, gas prices were moving upward based on fear of entering into war with Iraq and supply cuts in oil produced by Venezuela. In a Raleigh News and Observer article from January 10, 2003, Energy Information Administration analyst David Costello agreed, “If war erupts in Iraq, all bets are off on predicting prices.”

Gas was $1.52 a gallon when Dole took office; it now stands at $4.07 a gallon.

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