Graham seeks energy bill support

BEAUFORT -- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talked about energy policies in the dark Thursday after a storm interrupted power during a meeting with county officials.

Graham was in Beaufort to listen to local needs and to build support for a bipartisan energy bill unveiled last week that he believes will curb the nation's dependence on foreign oil and relieve energy costs.

After visiting shops on Bay Street, Graham met with four members of the Beaufort County Council and the governor's former chief of staff Tom Davis in a gathering that was part local lobbying effort, part congressional legislative briefing.

County Council Chairman Weston Newton asked Graham for help obtaining federal highway money for local road projects and Davis, a key figure in the bi-state port negotiations to develop the Jasper Ocean Terminal, sought assistance overcoming the project's bureaucratic

hurdles.

When it was Graham's turn, he talked about energy and immigration.

Two key proposals of the legislation are drawing controversy:

• Lifting the congressional ban on offshore drilling that covers the Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling would be allowed 50 miles out to sea and subject to the states' consent

• Recycling spent nuclear fuel to reduce waste bound for long-term storage

With gas around $4 a gallon, Graham said "the dam's about to break" on an energy bill compromise, but that Congress' summer recess will delay its passage until at least September.

In an interview before meeting with the county officials, Graham addressed environmental watchdogs' concerns about offshore drilling and recycling nuclear fuel. In defense of offshore drilling,

Graham repeated an often-quoted assertion that no oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico leaked after Hurricane Katrina. But according to a May 2006 news release from the Minerals Management Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, 113 rigs and 457 pipelines that are part of the offshore oil and gas infrastructure were

destroyed.

In light of that information, Graham said there were no "major" rig-related spills and that most are caused by tankers importing oil. Drilling rigs and pipelines are much less risky, he said.

Opponents also have said the amount of oil to be found offshore is insignificant. Graham said offshore drilling would be just one of many efforts aimed at curbing foreign oil demand.

Graham described opponents of nuclear fuel recycling as "stuck in the '70s" and said blocking recycling is "a backdoor way to kill nuclear power." Opponents say the process is extremely inefficient and more expensive than obtaining nuclear fuel through traditional means. Graham said China is poised to build 100 nuclear plants that will shoot up the demand -- and price -- of uranium.

On illegal immigration, Graham said he wants to deal with the problem "rationally" and that 12 million people cannot be thrown in jail.