Greggg Harper on Energy

Gregg Harper recently spoke to the Meridian Star Editorial Board on energy issues. He supports expanded nuclear, clean coal, but says while we need an all of the above approach, wind and solar won't alone be a solution for Mississippi.

The energy issue would be the number one issue. We have a failed energy policy. If you look back, when gas hit $4 a gallon a year ago this past June, it hurt a lot of small businesses. When I talk to manufacturers and ask when their business started to drop off they say it was about a year ago. Well, that was a couple of months after the prices hit $4 a gallon. It really shook the confidence of folks — seniors, people on fixed incomes, people who are poor, any small business. It had a profound impact.

And it kind of fluctuates. What is it, about $2.50 a gallon right now? And nobody knows why, nobody can get their arms around that. And we're dealing with a President whose stated goal is to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Well, we're all conservationists. We all want clean air and clean water. We don't want to pollute. We want what's right. But from a government policy standpoint, we need our policy to be to make America energy independent as a country. So you have a number of tax incentives and benefits that go to help domestic oil production of independent drillers in this country that will expire in the not too distant future. And if that happens, we're going to further suppress domestic production, which we need, and make us more dependent on foreign oil.

We're not doing anything to expand safe nuclear. We're talking about clean energy, nothing's cleaner than that. So what's the concern of nuclear power? Waste. What do you do with the waste? Well, the plan was to send it to Yucca Mountain. Energy companies have been paying for that to happen for years and years. And now senator Harry Reid got him a nice high speed rail to run from Las Vegas to Los Angeles but they're shutting down Yucca Mountain other than to keep the licensing. So, we're back to the drawing board. Where are you going to put it?

Wind and solar may work in some places. They don't work in Mississippi. We should have an all-of-the-above energy approach. Whatever will work to make us independent. But in the meantime don't put us in a situation where we're at an economic disadvantage competing with emerging markets, China and India and other countries that are going to use cheap fuel. By doing this, if it happens, we will push the pollution to other parts of the world.

Clean Coal technology, what they're trying to do in Kemper County, is a great thing. And we need to figure out a way that we can do it in the best manner possible. And we fully support what they're doing in Kemper County. It's a great thing for that county and for East Mississippi and for the energy needs in this country.

We cannot continue funding some of our enemies in the Middle East, for instance, with the foreign oil. Let's go get the natural gas, whatever we can get, whether it's offshore, whether it's in some federally protected lands or in Alaska, we can do it in an environmentally safe manner, and we need to go get that.