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Tom McClintock discusses Auburn dam, energy crisis |
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Written by Don Chaddock
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Earmarks, the Auburn dam, oil drilling and solar energy were all topics of discussion as state Sen. Tom McClintock dropped by Auburn for an early Tuesday morning campaign stop.
McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) made his case to replace longtime Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) in the November election against Democrat Charlie Brown while speaking at the Auburn Chamber of Commerce Forum, more commonly known as The Meddlers.
McClintock has vowed to fight earmarks, funding for regional projects that are attached to unrelated bills, if he’s elected to Congress. But that doesn’t mean he won’t fight for funding of projects that are worthy, such as the Auburn Dam and the regional wastewater treatment plant in Lincoln, he said.
“Earmarks have not helped this region; they’ve hurt. They are approved on political clout, not merit,” he said. “We have too many (earmarks) and they are bankrupting (our country).”
McClintock said he was fighting for the construction of the long-delayed Auburn dam only the day before at a meeting with the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board.
“I’ll fight like hell for these (types of) projects based on merit,” he said. “Decisions made in the dead of night, without hearings or input, are what take away from legitimate projects like the Auburn dam and the regional wastewater treatment plant.”
As far as the country’s dependence on foreign oil, McClintock said the U.S. has more than enough if companies were allowed to drill.
“We have more than one trillion barrels of oil within the U.S. boundaries to meet the needs for the next 150 years, but government is prohibiting us from getting to it,” he said.
He called the recent public opinion polls showing strong support for offshore oil drilling “an awakening” of the public, not a “shift” of public opinion.
He said alternative sources of power, such as solar, were “too expensive” and the country should construct more oil refineries, drill for more oil, and rely more on hydroelectric and nuclear power.
“People say give solar power more time and that it’s a new and emerging technology,” he said. “It’s the most expensive power. Photovoltaic cells are not new. They were invented in 1836. In almost 200 years, we have yet to create a more expensive form of electricity.”
He said state government plans to include ethanol in all gasoline was “insane.”
“Five million acres of crop land would need to be used to produce ethanol to fulfill 10 percent of fuel needs for the state,” he said. “California only has 11 million acres in food production of any kind.”
He said he isn’t new to voters of the district as he ran for statewide office during the 2006 election in which Brown narrowly lost his bid to unseat Doolittle. He also took offense at allegations made during the primary election that he wasn’t familiar with the Fourth Congressional District.
“From 1993 to 1996, we lived in Rocklin and I worked in Placer County, so this is not new territory,” he said.
When asked about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, McClintock said the country should fully support the wars, much like the country rallied behind the military and the cause after the Dec. 6, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
“The attack on Sept. 11 was our generation’s Pearl Harbor,” he said. “Only, it was worse than Pearl Harbor because it was on a civilian target.”
McClintock said he believes that mistakes were made early after the attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
“In short, once our troops are placed in harm’s way, we should unleash the full might and fury (of our military) and (fully support the war),” he said. “We should have learned (those) lessons in Vietnam and Korea.”
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