By Erin Pedigo, The Katy Sun

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul’s talk on the economy, with a focus on fuel prices, resonated with Mayor Don Elder.

Elder attended a May 28 press event with McCaul, R-Austin, who was touring the 10th Congressional District while on his Economic Prosperity Tour during a Washington recess.

“We are much interested in (the congressman’s proposals) and in our city, people are having hard times getting to work because of the cost factor with fuel and vehicles . . . so these are very important things to us and to the city of Katy,” he said.

Elder solidified his comment with a short story. His friend had driven to Alabama in a large truck, but instead of returning in it, he parked it, sold it and flew back to Texas because he couldn’t afford the gas.

McCaul said that supply and demand was a major reason for the problem of high fuel costs, and that fuel-gathering efforts at home, instead of abroad, would be a solution.

“Eighty percent of the oil coming in is imported into this country, most of it from the Middle East. It makes us vulnerable . . . how do we respond to this? We need to become more energy independent in this country. We need to change that equation from 80 percent imports to 80 percent made in America,” he said.

His solution to reliance on foreign suppliers was home-based fuel acquisition, namely through use of what he called “off-limit areas.”

“If we want to bring the price of gas down in the short term, what we’ll have to do, what is critical that we do, is open off limit areas — those areas that the Congress has said ‘you cannot touch,’” he said.

That effort involves opening to oil drilling Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as well as drilling offshore near coastlines.

“I’m talking about offshore drilling, which can be done underwater, off the coasts of Florida and California,” McCaul said.

He added that currently the Chinese are drilling off the Cuban coast, close to Florida. He doubted their methods would be environmentally sound.

“They’re not going to do it in an environmentally safe way,” he said.

A statement from McCaul’s office described the Chinese way of drilling for oil as completely counter to the American way.

“In China, there are no environmental regulations at all, unlike U.S. companies who have to be regulated and inspected for their environmental protections,” the statement said.

The statement added that the problem wasn’t just the methods the Chinese use to get oil, but also that it was also a question of availability and capability.

“The problem is that they’re exploring for oil 50 miles off the Florida coast while the U.S. can’t get near its Outer Continental Shelf resources. In other words, we’re bickering over the issue while a less environmentally-conscious country is taking the resources we need,” the statement said.

McCaul moved away from the topic of fuel made with oil and natural gases and touched on nuclear power’s potential.

“We haven’t had nuclear power in about three decades. France is 80 percent nuclear-powered, and they do it very safely, and very soundly, in an environmentally safe way. There is no reason why this country can’t start going down the path toward nuclear power, so we could be finally energy independent from the rest of the world,” he said.

Another proposal to help consumers cope with prices was a gas-tax holiday after cutting wasteful Congressional spending called earmarks.

“If we did these things, we could bring down the price of gas very quickly, to $1.85 a gallon,” he said.

McCaul’s two-day trip also took him through Giddings, Brenham, Tomball and Sealy.