Whitman agrees with McCain on offshore drilling

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- Former Gov. Christie Whitman, who left office during her second term after she was appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, said this morning that she thinks John McCain is right on the offshore drilling question.

Whitman said that offshore drilling is worth looking into, as long as it’s up to the states themselves. 

“(McCain) did put a provision in his bill to allow states to have the final word, and that to me is the important thing,” said Whitman as she was leaving the New Jersey delegation’s breakfast.  “We’re the only industrialized nation in the world that is not using all of its resources.  We can not keep saying we care about the price of oil, we’re worried about our energy, where it’s going to come from, and we want to continue to grow.  But we can’t drill, we don’t want to have any coal, we can’t have nuclear, we really don’t like wind power off the coast of Nantucket.  We can’t keep saying no to everything.”

Opposition to drilling offshore has become a cause celebre with New Jersey Democrats, who argue that allowing other states to drill doesn’t mean it won’t impact New Jersey.  Virginia, for instance, has had major pushes in its state legislator to allow drilling, and environmentalists say a spill in one of their potential oil fields could impact the southern Jersey Shore. 

Whitman, however, said that the lack of environmental damage caused by oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav demonstrated that the oil industry has come a long way.

“We didn’t have oil spills. We didn’t have leaks.  They have learned how to do things better, and we need to understand that,” she said.  “But there are other places where it could be a good thing, and we ought to be able to look at that, as long as the states have say.”