Cornyn visits Wichita Falls

Wichita Falls Times-Record News
June 22, 2008

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the answer to the nation's energy crisis is "all of the above," referring to both steps to increase domestic oil production and efforts to develop alternative energy sources.

Cornyn is among Republicans who have promoted opening federal land and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. Recoverable oil from those presently off-limits areas has been estimated at 30 billion barrels. He said in Wichita Falls Sunday that production could increase the domestic oil supply by three million barrels a day. The country currently consumes more than 20 million barrels per day.

"It's not huge, but it's not insignificant," Cornyn said.

He was in Wichita Falls to talk to local leaders about issues facing the community.

High on the leaders' list was ending delays in flood mitigation efforts necessary in the wake of record flooding in the city nearly one year ago - and securing new missions for Sheppard Air Force Base, which is due to lose personnel in the newest round of Base Realignment and Closures.

Cornyn said he understood Mayor Lanham Lyne's frustration with bureaucratic delays in getting flood mitigation help, but said he believes Gov. Rick Perry has taken the necessary steps at the state level to speed the process.

Brig. Gen. Richard T. Devereaux told Cornyn that when Sheppard loses its medical training group, up to a half-million square feet of training space will be available on the base. The move will also trim up to 2,000 personnel.

Cornyn said he was committed to helping Sheppard, but offered nothing concrete in the way of new missions. He agreed the military is moving toward greater use of unmanned aerial vehicles, which has been mentioned as a possible training mission for Sheppard.

"Lots of UAV stuff is being tested and spiraled out," he said.

Returning to energy, Cornyn said Democrats are "tapping into populist anger" over gasoline prices that average about $4 per gallon nationwide, and that has spawned efforts to punish big oil companies and sue the OPEC cartel to force it to produce more oil.

He said in truth, the issue is connected to high demand and limited supply of oil brought on by the rapid emergence of industrialized economies in China and India, each of which has a population of more than one billion.

"They want what we have, which is a middle class existence, and that takes energy," he said.

Cornyn said in addition to producing more of its own oil, the U.S needs to expand nuclear electricity generation.

"France gets 80 percent of its power from from nuclear. Our own Navy has been using nuclear power safely for 50 years," he pointed out. He also said coal can help if we develop clean ways to use it. He said the U.S has a 300 year supply of coal.

The senator said while he encourages development of wind and solar energy sources, he doesn't believe those alternatives can meet more than 10 percent of the nation's needs in the foreseeable future..

He said he understood that the public doesn't trust the government to "perform as advertised" on major issues such as the energy crisis.

"Washington is not good at long term planning," he said, blaming much of that failure on the government's large bureaucracy. He said that was one reason he was against the latest climate change legislation

"It would have created a whole new bureaucracy.... Administrations come and go, but the bureaucracy stays. It just hunkers down," he said.