Farmfest, Off Shore Drilling And Another Great Day in Minnesota

Dear Friends,
 
Yesterday, we had our first official candidate forum of the 2008 campaign at Farmfest.
 
First, I want to thank the folks at Farmfest who put this incredible program together. I’ve been proud to work alongside them since I was first elected to the Senate in 2002, and representing an agricultural state like Minnesota is one of the most important and gratifying aspects of my job.
 
Second, it’s clear that people in Minnesota are hungry for a positive, forward-looking vision for our state and our nation and someone who has the proven ability to get the job done. I believe that I have been successful at that, largely through the willingness of Minnesotans across the state, regardless of their political affiliation, who have worked with me to get so much done for our state.
 
While the candidates from the Independence Party and I might disagree on public policy issues, I do believe there was a respectful discussion, and a respect for the efforts of the organizers of Farmfest to have a civil and positive debate about the issues.
 
Al Franken was just a bit too angry for the taste of a lot of folks in attendance. I know that he’s got some serious issues with the President, and that’s his right but, this is a campaign for the United States Senate and the future of our nation. I think his rhetoric and attacks were not well-received, and I believe a lot of people in the audience were uncomfortable with his relentless negativity and lack of positive vision for the future.

I truly believe that one of the great challenges facing our nation is our reliance on foreign energy, and it’s time to break our dependence on foreign oil. We need to produce more and consume less, and we need to focus more on conservation. Equally important, we must take advantage of domestic resources that we have in this nation and we must aggressively pursue environmentally safe exploration and drilling for domestic oil off the shores of the US.
 
Of course, as we have done together these past several years, we must dramatically increase our production of renewable energy in this country. I'm actively working to do just that, including introducing an amendment to the recently considered Oil Speculation Bill in the Senate, along with Senator Pete Domenici, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which would open the OCS to drilling and provide for new research and development for advanced batteries to lead to more plug-in hybrids.
 
My opponent rejects this vision of a “do-it-all” approach. He's gone backwards on his commitment to nuclear energy. His proposal for increasing the state gas tax by 10 cents a gallon is as harmful a tax increase proposal as any that exists today.
 
In the last several days we've seen the price of oil and gas drop significantly. And, this is a good thing for hard-working middle class families. However, my opponent has said he would put a federal gas tax increase back on the table should the price of gas drop precipitously. I think that is simply bad public policy and horrible economic policy during tough economic times.
 
Regardless of the current drop in oil and gas prices, our commitment to aggressive pursuits of new energy solutions cannot be relaxed. The opportunity to make a real difference in our energy future is now.  We must drill in the OCS and we must drill now.
 
In closing, it was a great day yesterday. I am so proud of the support I have received from the entire agricultural community and proud of your support and encouragement. I look forward to seeing you in the days and weeks ahead!

Norm Coleman,
U.S. Senator

P.S. I would like to ask you to send to my campaign office some of your gas receipts over the past several weeks. I would like to send a copy of these receipts to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who have blocked efforts to drill for more energy in our country. In addition, I will send Al Franken a copy of those receipts, but adding in his 10 cent a gallon state gas tax proposal. He's said Minnesotans wouldn't notice the increase. Why don't you include some comments when you send your receipt about whether or not you would notice a 10 cent a gallon gas tax increase...something tells me you would!