As crude oil prices continue to rise, Senator Ben Nelson is supporting a coalition to look into energy in general. He says a forum or a summit is needed so all questions and answers can be addressed once and for all.
“There are immediate things that could be done and we are looking at those. There are some things that are probably longer term and if the administration cares about it enough, then they would work with us on the longer term approach so we could put together truly an energy policy for this country.”
Senator Nelson is a supporter of domestic drilling both on and off shore.
“It is my understanding that there are currently 68-million acres both on shore and off shore, almost evenly split, leases for drilling that is not being tapped at the moment. So, there are almost 8-million in the Gulf of Mexico. So, for all those out there saying we need more leases or we need to drill in more places, it seems to me they may be right but they are ignoring the fact there is not enough drilling going on in the current 68-million acres of leases at the present time. So, I don’t know why the energy is being expended to try to get more leases as opposed as to pushing the oil industry into drilling the leases they already have.”
Nelson also says that many hands are tied when it comes to trying to free ourselves from foreign oil.
“We keep hearing it takes twice as long to get a permit to build a nuclear energy plant than it does to build it. We are also told that if we had twenty on-line permitted, we don’t have the construction capacity in the United States to do it. Well, we need to have that information locked down so we know what’s true. We need to know why you can’t pump more oil or why we don’t have more refinery capacity in the United States.”
Senator Nelson says all the answers to our energy needs does not lie at the bottom of an oil well but definitely more oil is needed while we work on an alternative energy solution.