by Judy Frank
posted August 12, 2008
What’s the answer to the oil crisis currently facing Americans? Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tennessee) asked members of the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga on Tuesday.
Lifting the ban on off-shore oil drilling? Finding renewable energy sources? Or conservation?
“All of the above,” the Congressman said, repeating a theme he has been promoting for months.
Clearly, this nation is facing a crisis, he said.
“Four dollars for a gallon of gas is not sustainable,” he said. “Businesses will have to close. People will lose their jobs . . . Until the price of gas gets down below $3 a gallon, the pressure is not going to ease.”
Solving the problem will require both work and sacrifice on the part of the American people, he said, and a significant part of the solution will involve conserving resources that are available to make them go as far as possible.
“Conservation is not for wimps, it’s for warriors,” he said.
For some, eliminating unnecessary trips and weatherizing their homes and making sure their tires are at the right pressure and replacing appliances with more energy-efficient ones – conserving energy whenever possible – will mean major adjustments in lifestyle, he noted.
But by making such changes, Rep. Wamp said, citizens are helping their nation find its way out of a real crisis. Add all those individual savings together, and they total significant amounts of energy that still can be tapped when really needed.
Switching to renewable sources of energy such as wind power also is part of the answer, he said, as is allowing oil companies to drill in areas that are now off-limits such as the outer continental shelf.
Already, he said, there are rumors on the internet that energy-hungry China has reached an agreement with Cuba and is conducting offshore drilling in the same areas where American companies are not allowed to drill.
“They’re wrong,” he said, noting that no such drilling has occurred.
But it is true that China has reached an agreement with Cuba that would allow such drilling, he added, “so it could happen any time.”
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