Peña: Drilling won’t reduce energy prices until 2030

“Senator McCain (R-Ariz.) is not going to help solve this energy crisis, because frankly he helped create it”, said Federico Peña, who served as both the Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy under President Clinton. Peña spoke on a conference call to discuss McCain’s energy strategy, calling it “more of the same”.

Peña went on to say, “[McCain] blamed our dependence on foreign oil on the inaction of politicians in Washington, but he’s been there for the past 26 years and he did very little.” He also said that McCain has talked endlessly about drilling in the protected parts of our country like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite reports from the Bush administration’s energy department that have shown drilling there would only reduce oil costs to Americans by a few cents. In addition, Peña said the energy department estimated that the small decrease in price would not come about at all until the year 2030.

Peña also attacked McCain’s plan for energy independence by saying that any reduction in price caused by increased production from the United States would be met with OPEC nations reducing their levels of production of oil to keep prices high. As such, he advocates investing in renewable sources of energy that are not subject to price fluctuations determined by foreign governments.