Lights go out on Sen. Graham's energy talk with the county

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., talked about energy policies in the dark Thursday after a storm interrupted power during a meeting with county officials.

Graham was in Beaufort to listen to local needs and to build support for a bipartisan energy bill unveiled Friday that he believes will curb the nation's dependence on foreign oil and relieve energy costs.

After visiting some shops on Bay Street, Graham met with four members of the Beaufort County

Council and the former governor's chief of staff Tom Davis in a meeting that was part local lobbying effort and part congressional legislative

briefing.

County Council Chairman Weston Newton asked Graham for help obtaining federal highway money for local road projects and Davis, a key figure in the bistate port negotiations to develop the Jasper Ocean Terminal, sought assistance overcoming the project's bureaucratic hurdles.

Graham said the $45.5 million in congressional earmarks for Beaufort County roads was "money well spent" and said it will be "easier for me to go to bat for you" when locals bear much of the financial burden, as in Beaufort County, through impact fees and local option sales tax.

On the port, Graham was also eager to help.

"We're going to get it done. 'No' is the wrong answer," he said.

When it was Graham's turn, he talked about energy and immigration.

Two key proposals of the legislation are drawing controversy:

•Lifting the congressional ban on offshore drilling that covers the Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling would be allowed 50 miles out to sea and subject to the states' consent

•Recycling spent nuclear fuel to reduce waste bound for long-term storage

With gas around $4 a gallon, Graham said "the dam's about to break" on an energy bill compromise, but that Congress' summer recess will delay its passage until at least September.

In an interview before meeting with the county officials, Graham addressed environmental watchdogs' concerns about offshore drilling and recycling nuclear fuel. In defense of offshore drilling, Graham repeated an often-quoted assertion that no oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico leaked after Hurricane Katrina. But according to a May 2006 news release from the Minerals Management Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, 113 rigs and 457 pipelines that are part of the offshore oil and gas infrastructure were destroyed.

In light of that information, Graham said there were no "major" rig-related spills and that most are caused by tankers importing oil. Drilling rigs and pipelines are much less risky, he said.

Opponents have also said the amount of oil to be found offshore is insignificant. Graham said offshore drilling would be just one of many efforts aimed at curbing foreign oil demand.

"You've got to do all things, you can't do just one," Graham said. "Every barrel of oil here is one less we buy overseas."

Graham described opponents of nuclear fuel recycling as "stuck in the '70s" and said blocking recycling is "a backdoor way to kill nuclear power." Opponents say the process is extremely inefficient and more expensive than obtaining nuclear fuel through traditional means. Graham said China is poised to build 100 nuclear plants that will shoot up the demand -- and price -- of uranium.

On illegal immigration, Graham said he wants to deal with the problem "rationally" and that 12 million people cannot be thrown in jail. He said Social Security cards are too easily faked to be the main means to document workers and wants the employment standards to transition to a biometric plastic card that's hard to duplicate.

Additionally, he said South Carolina's tourism industry is being held back by the limited number of work visas available for tourism-related jobs and wants to expand that program.

Graham closed by praising county officials and their "very progressive" efforts.

"When our lives in politics is done, I hope people'll look back and say we did good work ... These people have a plan and weren't just looking at the next election."