June 2, 2006
 
EDITORIAL: Gasoline Prices: Byrd Can’t Have it Both Ways
 
U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd is fond of criticizing the Bush Administration. In fact, it's his favorite pastime, beginning with the War on Terror and now extending into gasoline prices.
 
But it's easy to criticize when gasoline prices are sky high. Apparently, it's far more difficult to come up with some real solutions for working West Virginians, who have to pay nearly double what they paid a couple of years ago to commute to work, pick up their kids at soccer matches, or go on a summer vacation in the minivan.
 
So far, Byrd has been content to simply rehearse the mantra both parties are saying these days, namely that "we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil." Thank-you, Senator, for making the obvious abundantly clear!
 
But here's the rub: Senator Byrd has also gone on record as being opposed to more oil drilling in the United States. Now how are we supposed to get less dependent on foreign oil if we can't drill more here? We can't do it simply by conservation efforts alone--this nation would come to a screeching halt without ample oil resources. So why not find more of them here at home?
 
In just one of these areas we could be drilling at home, the Alaskan Nature and Wildlife Reserve (ANWR), a state like West Virginia would get, by some estimates using U.S. Department of Interior information, 266 YEARS worth of fuel if we drilled in ANWR.
 
Byrd has voted against drilling in ANWR nine times since 1991. If we had begun drilling a decade ago West Virginians would be paying a lot less for gas now because we'd be more self-sufficient. Byrd can't have it both ways: he can't blame high gas prices on our dependence on foreign oil when he specifically voted many times to stay dependent on foreign oil. And the drilling can be done in such a way that it doesn't unduly harm the environment there.
 
Senator Byrd has drifted into the hands of radical environmentalists and away from the rest of us on this one, while Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Raese pursues a much more sensible solution: more drilling. More drilling in the Pacific Northwest, more drilling in Alaska, more drilling until we can be in a much greater bargaining position with the Middle East or that ornery Venezuelan government.
 
Raese is a businessman. He knows how to compete. Byrd probably hasn't paid for a tank of gas in ten years. Maybe it's time that the Senator talks to some of us here in West Virginia who are dealing with this problem on a daily basis -- not only in our own personal gasoline consumption but in the higher prices we're paying for everything that is trucked in from out of state to our grocery stores.
 
Aren't Democrats supposed to be for the little guy? The little guy here is getting hammered by rising oil prices, but his senior U.S. Senator offers nothing but contradictory platitudes on the subject.
 
At least Raese has put forward one solution. It's more than we've ever heard from Byrd on gas prices.