Question: What is your vision for bringing the U.S. to energy independence?Bennett: "I'd like to point out that on 191 there's a gas station that happened to change hands right around the time that George Bush took office. Immortalized on that sign it says, 'Gas, 1.29 a gallon.' Now we're paying $20 to $40 more to fill up our cars. There obviously has been a problem here.
"My opponent's priority is continuing the Big Oil agenda of the past. My agenda will be the renewable energy policies of the future. My opponent has accepted $75,000 in donations from Big Oil and then gave $13 billion in tax breaks to those same companies. He's all for bailing out corporations, but when it came to making sure that, uh - I want to make sure I got my facts right on this one [Bennett looks at her cue cards] - when it came to making sure that we prosecuted price gougers and opened up oil reserves, he voted No. When it came to having renewable energy standards for electric utilities or incentives for efficiency, once again, he votes No.
"I have worked to end America's dependency on Middle East Oil in ten years. We need to focus on a long-term strategy to accomplish that and a short-term strategy.
"One of the short-term strategies? We do need to drill and we need to drill on the 58 million acres we currently have. Long-term? We need to insure that we invest in renewable energy - solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydroelectric.
"A generation ago it was the race to space. For us, it is the race of the alternative energy industry and future that this America can hold onto."
Dent: "My opponent has criticized me [in her opening remarks] because I voted against the Freddie-Fannie bailout. No one was fired. No one was fired. The federal government stepped in and bailed out Freddie and Fannie and no one was fired and she criticized me for voting against that bill. Last time I checked, you supported that piece of legislation and I did not. That was the only bailout that I've had to vote on.
"I want to point out, too, with respect to price gouging, I certainly have voted for anti-price gouging legislation on more than one occasion. I voted, too, against speculators. I voted on a number of issues she's mentioned - alternative and renewable fuels.
"Many of those alternative and renewable fuels and tax credits, I voted for the Energy Act of 2005. So did Barack Obama. He voted to extend those, and John McCain actually voted against that particular piece of legislation. So I have voted for all these renewables and all these alternatives.
"The difference is she wants to raise your taxes on American-produced energy to pay for all of this. I want to use Alaska's revenues and royalties as well as the Outer Coastal Shelf to pay for these renewables and alternatives.
"She wants higher prices on energy, I don't. She mentioned renewable portfolio standards. if we were to do what she's advocating, your electric utility bills will skyrocket. We're already facing the rates cap coming off in Pennsylvania in 2010 . . .
[Someone in audience starts a catcall]
". . . the renewable portfolio standard that she advocated - we don't allow nuclear, we don't allow waste coal, which is what we allow in Pennsylvania - it will shoot up your rates all across this country. Believe me, be ready. She wants higher electric utility bills, higher prices at the pump. She doesn't support American exploration and American jobs. She wants to outsource it to OPEC, which will make us more dependent on unstable parts of the world for our oil. That's not where we should be.
"We should be looking at self-reliance, and I'm the guy to do it."
Blogger's Note: According to Morning Call Road Warrior Dan Hartzell, the $1.29 gas station was closes sometime between Nov '01 and May '02.
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