Gilmore sells message to lower gas prices

By Jay Warren
WSLS10 Anchor
Published: July 8, 2008

Jim Gilmore feels your pump pain. The former Republican governor and current US Senate candidate spent Tuesday finding out how soaring gas prices are impacting average Virginians.

Early in the morning he helped people fill up the gas tanks at the Orange Mart in Roanoke County. Later in the morning he did the same at a gas station in Radford.

In both places heard plenty of complaints about fuel costs.

One man said, “I’m tired of the gas prices going up, and wages ain’t going up.” Another man from Smith Mountain Lake added, “The American people are getting strangled. The fuel prices are strangling the small guy.”

It’s easy to find people to gripe about the prices. It’s much harder to fix them.

“It’s a challenge and we’re going to do something about it,” Gilmore proclaimed in Roanoke.

What is it? Domestic oil drilling.

“We drill in ANWR. We drill offshore,” he said.

That’s the immediate solution Gilmore believes will give real relief at the pump, even if most economists and the government disagree.

WARREN:” GOVERNOR, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SAID THAT IF YOU INCREASE DOMESTIC OIL PRODUCTION IT WON’T REALLY IMPACT PRICES OR THE AMOUNT PRODUCED UNTIL THE YEAR 2030.

GILMORE: “Bologna.”

WARREN: “THAT’S THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.”

GILMORE: “I don’t care what the federal government says. We know that that’s not right. The fact is we can bring in the oil quicker than that.”

Gilmore’s opponent, Democrat Mark Warner, isn’t buying it. Warner opposes drilling in ANWR and favors only offshore oil exploration. His campaign communications director called Gilmore’s plan “shallow gimmickry.”

WARREN: “WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT?”

GILMORE: “I say they’re shallow. I think they are trying to push away the solutions just like the people in Washington have always tried to do that.”

And domestic oil drilling is the entire debate because the candidates agree on almost everything else. He both are calling for building more domestic refineries, developing more bio-fuels, and increased conservation, clean coal, and nuclear power.

Gilmore says all of that is good, but it’s the immediate relief he’s after and it’s what he’s selling at pumps across the commonwealth.

“Stick with me, we’re going to do something about this,” Gilmore told one driver.