Glenn Nye, challenger to Rep. Thelma Drake in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, unveiled his energy plan over the weekend.
The energy plan doesn’t deviate much from what he told Bearing Drift and state Democratic convention-goers in June, when he highlighted closing any tax loop-holes for energy corporations and diverting that money to alternative fuel research.
According to Nye’s web site, his energy plan is focused mainly on finding new and alternative forms of energy, however it fails to provide any real details.
From the event on Saturday, the Pilot reports that Nye’s plan also includes:
…more drilling on lands now leased to oil companies, more regulation on oil speculators, and more investment in alternative energy.
For the first time, he said he is not opposed to lifting the congressional moratorium on new offshore drilling sites but said there should be no drilling off Virginia’s coast unless the Navy approves it.
The last part is the most interesting because Rep. Thelma Drake has already agreed to that int the current congressional proposal.
On Wednesday, Drake signed onto an energy plan called the National Conservation, Environment and Energy Independence Act. It would restrict drilling rigs to 25 miles offshore and give each state an option to extend the no-drilling zone to 50 miles. It also would preserve a ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The Navy’s primary training area off the coast of Virginia does not extend further than 50 miles, so lifting the moratorium will not have any impact on the Navy in Virginia.
It’s also interesting in that he waited for Barack Obama and Mark Warner to come around to this line of thinking before also changing tack.
