State of Massachusetts Archives: on Energy & Oil

Ayanna Pressley: We need to encourage renewable energy

Ed Markey: Simply unneeded to subsidize oil industry

Markey and Gomez split on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada to Texas. Gomez said the project would create jobs, while Markey said the US would end up bearing all the environmental risk while the oil itself is dumped onto the international market.

Gabriel Gomez: Keystone XL project brings jobs

Markey and Gomez split on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada to Texas. Gomez said the project would create jobs, while Markey said the US would end up bearing all the environmental risk while the oil itself is dumped onto the international market.

Scott Brown: Cap-and-trade is a national energy tax

"It's not a tax," Coakley replied.

"It's a tax," Brown insisted.

Senate Democrats support cap and trade. I asked Brown about his opposition to it last month, at a campaign stop in Medfield. "If we don't use cap and trade, how do we reduce emissions?" I wondered.

"You can reduce by conservation, wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear," Brown told me. "You can provide a total package and let people have different avenues and different ways to heat and light their businesses. How does government enforce that? They have their hands in pretty much everything. I'm sure there'll be a role for government--and at some point, government needs to get out of the way, as well."

Martha Coakley: Supports national cap-and-trade system, plus renewables

Scott Brown: Opposes cap-and-trade system, but renewables OK

Jeff Beatty: Additional drilling has to be part of the solution

Beatty said he supports the proposed additional drilling in Alaska’s ANWR wildlife preserve; drilling off the coast of the US; and Sen. John McCain’s call for a temporary suspension of the federal 18 cents per gallon gasoline tax.

Jeff Beatty: Should have drilled ANWR 10 years ago; so drill now

A: Sure. First of all, we were out there before he came up with his proposal. Second, he was not for drilling in ANWR. But I’m not running against John McCain, I’m running against John Kerry. Contrast me to John Kerry. John Kerry doesn’t want to drill in ANWR, doesn’t want to drill off the coast. If you drill off the coast, that oil becomes available within two years. It’s supply and demand, it’s the most simple rule of economics.

John Kerry says no to ANWR--you know why? He says because it will take ten years before any of that oil comes online. I said, ‘OK, what if we had done it ten years ago? You’ve been in the Senate all this time. Did you not look down the road and see that we were going to need to be in control of our own destiny, not at the mercy of a Middle Eastern country who, whether they decided to pump more gas or not, we would have to go begging for?

Jeff Beatty: Opposed gas tax hikes; roll-back gasoline prices

He said that, in contrast, his opponent is a globe-trotter who has proposed gas tax hikes.

“He doesn’t get it,” said Mr. Beatty, who is retired from a career in the US Army, CIA and FBI and running a small security business. “He doesn’t have any contact with the lives most of us lead. I’m a proud member of the middle class.”

Kerry Healey: I like wind energy, but Cape Wind is a bad idea

Scott Brown: Promote increased use of alternative fuel technology