Driscoll Calls for U.S. to Break Oil Addiction

Press Release

Driscoll calls for U.S. to break oil addiction

By MIKE DENNISON
Gazette State Bureau

John Driscoll, the Democratic challenger to U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., said Tuesday that America needs a crash course to wean itself from oil as its main energy source and to switch to resources such as solar, wind and nuclear power.

"It's time to break an addiction," he said. "And there's only one way to do it, and that's to stop. (Petroleum) is not the mainstream anymore."

Driscoll, who uses solar energy to help power his Helena home, said he opposes calls by Rehberg and fellow Republicans to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore areas to oil exploration.

"It's just one more subsidy to keep a failed industry going," he said.
Yet Driscoll, a retired public service commissioner and colonel in the National Guard, said he probably departs from many fellow Democrats in his support for development of nuclear power and higher taxes on carbon.

Money from the carbon tax can be used to upgrade coal-burning power plants and make them more efficient, he said.

Driscoll is mounting a long-shot bid to unseat Rehberg, declining to raise any campaign funds or do much campaigning at all.

Libertarian Mike Fellows of Missoula is in the race also.

Rehberg, Montana's only congressman, is running for a fifth consecutive two-year term.

Rehberg appeared Monday in New Orleans in a nationally broadcast debate in which he promoted congressional Republicans' bill to open up ANWR and offshore sites to oil exploration, as well as enact incentives for solar, nuclear, wind and other alternative energy sources.

Driscoll said he views energy policy in the context of national security, and that if the country wants to avoid the cost of perpetual wars in the Middle East, it must switch to a nonpetroleum-based energy policy.

He is proposing the country invest in electric, light-rail transportation that could run along interstate highway corridors, and encourage electric or hybrid gas-electric vehicles for travel on highways.

"It's like being in a war at peace time," Driscoll said. "We're going to have to organize at that level of intensity. What I'm trying to do is get people to not fight (over the issue), but just talk."

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