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Cornyn works to prime the pump on lowering fuel costs
Texarkana Gazette
Saturday, August 23, 2008
By: Greg Bischof
To make his point about the need to bring down gasoline prices, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, literally brought his case to the pump while visiting Friday in Texarkana.
During a campaign stop that took him a local EZ Mart convenience store, Cornyn said the country has seen a recent decline in fuel prices, but an even more recent spike up in the price of oil per barrel still makes for unsettling economic times.
“We’ve seen the price of oil spike up a little because of the continuing trouble the Republic of Georgia is having with Russia right now,” Cornyn said, explaining that high fuel price can be attributed, in part, to America’s dependency on foreign oil. He said this is especially of oil from the Middle East—close to where Georgia and other troubled areas of the world are situated geographically.
By drilling in U.S.-owned areas of oil shale now, Cornyn said the U.S. could potentially produce as much as three million additional barrels of oil a day.
Besides drilling to produce more petroleum, Cornyn said the U.S. needs to return to nuclear power as a potential source of energy.
“China has more than a billion people and India now has more that a billion people. Both countries are faced with the need to produce more cars as well as a way to fuel them,” he said. “We need to find ways to conserve as well as produce more energy at home by eventually pursuing alternatives energy resources such as bio fuels and clean fuels which can help keep the environment safe.”
Politically speaking, Cornyn said he has seen public opinion change dramatically in favor some immediate action on the part of the U.S. Congress to lower fuel prices.
“This time last year, people were paying more than $2 a gallon. This year went to more than $4 per gallon,” he said. “This concern is now one of the top priorities people care about and one they want us to work on immediately.”
Cornyn said he was one of the federal legislators who voted against Congress going on summer recess earlier this month, adding that he is hoping to get measures passed next month to help lower fuel prices.
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