Lamar talks food, fuel and campaigns

Tennessee Senator discusses rising fuel costs, its impact on food prices and his and McCain's campaigns

Email | Print By Ken Whitehouse

Lamar Alexander

Tennessee's senior U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander was in Nashville today touring the operations at Second Harvest Food Bank and discussing how fuel prices impact food prices, and spoke briefly about the political campaign season.

Alexander called for more offshore oil drilling and taking steps towards making it easier for Americans to drive plug-in electric cars and trucks. He touted a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress called the "Gas Price Reduction Act."

According the Alexander, the two main components of the legislation are "find more" and "use less." He calls for increasing American oil production by one-third through offshore exploration and western states' oil shale, saying that it would produce 3 million new barrels a day. He added that by making it easier for Americans to drive plug-in electric cars and trucks we could also cut use of imported oil.

Jaynee Day, president and CEO of Second Harvest, in comments to the media and Alexander, said that rising fuel costs have impacted their work and their fuel costs for distributing food has more than doubled in the last year.

When asked about an energy plan being put forward by his colleague in the senate, Sen. Bob Corker, Alexander called it a "good start" and that the senate should take up consideration of the bipartisan bill. He then added that he was one of a minority of U.S. Senators who voted against adjourning from Congress while fuel prices are hovering around the $4 a gallon mark nationally.

It was noted that tomorrow is primary election day in Tennessee and Alexander was asked about his plans for the general election. He will face either Nashville attorney and former Tennessee Democratic Party chairman Bob Tuke, former Knox County Clerk Mike Padgett or Nashville businessman Kenneth Eaton.

Alexander said that he will take whoever his opponent is seriously and that he hoped that Tennesseans would return him to office in November.

When asked what he thought of his party's presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, whose campaign has been on the defensive this week over campaign commercials and his appearance at a motorcycle rally, Alexander replied that McCain has a new campaign team in place that is "working out some kinks."

He pointed out that both McCain's and opponent Senator Barack Obama's campaign have been even in recent political polls, but either way he was going to continue to concentrate on his own campaign.