Heller: Conservation, more drilling key to gas price crunch

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | 3:16 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- In trying to lessen the pain of $4-a-gallon gas, Rep. Dean Heller has developed a strategy similar to his attitude toward gold mining in his mostly northern Nevada district.

Drill where there’s oil, not where it’s politically polite.

High gas prices are bound to be a top campaign issue when Heller and Democrat Jill Derby face off in the sprawling district that includes the state’s rural-most reaches, where residents drive long distances and rely on gas-thirsty trucks to get around.

After touring Alaska’s oil rich North Slope and a federal renewable energy lab in Colorado with fellow Republicans over the weekend, Heller returned to Washington committed to drilling. (He also reiterated his support for nuclear power, so long as the waste remains on site and is not shipped to Yucca Mountain, the planned national waste dump north of Las Vegas.)

Renewable energy, he said today, is a key element of his three-pronged gas-price reduction strategy that includes conservation, but based on the electric and hydrogen cars he saw in Colorado, not one ready for prime time.

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“Renewable energy is critical in the future. I just don’t see it moving so quickly,” Heller told reporters. “That’s why we have to make sure we think about all three -- conservation, renewable energy and also additional drilling.”

Heller joins his fellow Republicans in their push to lift the decades-old ban on off-shore drilling, as President Bush called for last week -- something Democrats mostly oppose.

He also supports House Republicans’ desire to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling -- an effort their counterparts in the Senate have essentially tabled as too controversial, especially since it is opposed by the party’s presumed presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Democrats counter that drilling in the environmentally sensitive Arctic refuge would only lower the price of gas by a few cents a gallon.

Heller also said he supports increased drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a federal oil-producing region west of the Arctic refuge -- though he voted against a Democratic bill last week that would have forced oil companies to step up their activity there or lose their leases. The bill failed.

“You drill where the oil is,” Heller said Tuesday. “You don’t mine for gold where bureaucrats or some group tells you. You have to go where the gold is, that’s where you mine. Same with oil. Where the oil is, is where you should be drilling.”

The House Democrats’ national campaign arm criticized the Republican trip as a taxpayer-funded junket to highlight the oil companies’ agenda.

Democrats in Congress are instead pushing bills to bring prices down by reigning in oil market speculators and accelerating oil exploration of areas already open to development.

Derby opposes opening the wildlife refuge to drilling. Instead, she supports the House Democrats’ strategy of requiring the oil companies to use-or-lose their leases in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.

While some Democrats have indicated a willingness to break rank with the party to support off-shore drilling in the coastal and Gulf states, Derby is still considering her position on the issue, her spokesman said.

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By billsail

7/22/08 at 4:33 p.m.

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DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, PAY LESS. It is that simple. Supply and demand... Don't be a Sheepeople (people acting like sheep). Standup Nevada!
By UNLVStud

7/22/08 at 6:54 p.m.

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Instead of falling lock-step with the Republicans, Heller should stand up for something that would ACTUALLY lower energy prices and would bring economic prosperity to Nevada. Heller should be pushing for tax breaks for renewable energy companies. Solar power would be a great asset to Nevada. Southern Nevada has the potential to be the greatest exporter of electricity in the country if Congress, and Heller in particular, would support solar instead of Big Oil.
By thebs

7/22/08 at 7:32 p.m.

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Unfortunately, billsail's parroting the fantasy that more drilling means lower gas prices.

Here's the deal, bill: Had "McCain's Economic Brain" Republican Phil Gramm not slipped us the Enron Loophole, the rampant unchecked speculation that has skyrocketed the price of oil wouldn't have happened. There are some estimates that speculation alone accounts for more than 30% of the current PPB.

This is NOT a supply/demand issue. The supply has not diminished. We are not rationing fuel. There is more than enough oil, and more than enough gas. Domestic refineries aren't even working at 100% capacity.

Furthermore, any oil drilled from our land will end up on the world market, meaning we cannot control the price. Also, doing so will step on the feet of OPEC, and they can simply scale back production a bit to compensate for any additional oil we produce, thus keeping prices static... unless you think we should nationalize the oil industry.

What the Republicans must do is join with the Democrats in closing the Enron Loophole. That is the short-term solution for oil prices.

And the fact that Gramm orchestrated this mess, along with the mortgage meltdown, should give everyone pause when they consider voting for McCain.
By jfnance32

7/22/08 at 7:38 p.m.

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Solar and wind will make your electric bill go higher not lower.

Neither will help with the price of gas now or ever.
By PatriciaLV

7/23/08 at 6:29 a.m.

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jfnance wrote:

"Solar and wind will make your electric bill go higher not lower..."

Any chance you might have a reliable source for this?