Gore Urges Congress to Maintain Ban on Offshore Drilling

By STEPHEN POWERJuly 18, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Former Vice President Al Gore urged Congress not to overturn a federal ban on offshore drilling and complained that lawmakers are "being stampeded by lobbyists for special interests" eager to lift the moratorium.

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke about America's energy needs at in Washington.
In a speech and interview, Mr. Gore called for moving the U.S. toward "zero-carbon" electricity over a decade, and reiterated his support for a carbon tax accompanied by a "sharp reduction" in payroll taxes.
"We have to switch from carbon-intensive fuels to renewable energy," Mr. Gore said. Although some recent opinion polls have found evidence of a shift in public opinion toward favoring more domestic drilling as a response to high oil prices, Mr. Gore declined to read much into those findings.
"The larger point for me is that it has nothing to do with short-term relief from gas prices, and probably nothing to do with long-term relief," he said of calls to lift the moratorium. "You take an oil deposit right off the coast of California -- that's more likely to be sold to China."
Mr. Gore's comments come amid signs that climate change is sliding down Washington's priority list, as lawmakers have pivoted to voter concerns about high fuel prices. A bill to create a system for capping emissions of greenhouse gases in the U.S. economy was shelved in the Senate in June. A growing number of Democratic lawmakers also have said publicly in recent weeks that they could support a relaxation of the current drilling ban as a response to high oil and natural-gas prices.
Separately, Democratic leaders are under pressure from environmentalists to curb the U.S. consumption of fossil fuels, amid new warnings about climate change's effects. A government report published on Thursday said climate change "is very likely to accentuate the disparities already evident in the American health-care system," with expected health effects -- such as heat-related illnesses and the spread of certain diseases -- likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, elderly, disabled and uninsured.
Mr. Gore called for a huge upgrade of the nation's electric grid, while "helping our struggling auto giants" switch to manufacturing plug-in electric cars. The Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan group Mr. Gore leads, put the cost of his plan to switch to an entirely carbon-free electricity supply at approximately $1.5 trillion to $3 trillion, and said most of that investment could come from private sources with the right mix of government policies.
Write to Stephen Power at stephen.power@wsj.com