"Senate candidate Mark R. Warner said Wednesday that the U.S. government needs to get tougher with OPEC and better regulate investors speculating in the oil market to drive down gas prices.

Warner (D) unveiled his energy policy the same day that President Bush called for Congress to remove the federal ban on offshore drilling, including areas off the Virginia coastline. Warner said he supports offshore exploration for oil and natural gas but stopped short of endorsing drilling, expressing environmental concerns and saying it would have no immediate impact on gas prices.

With those prices exceeding $4 a gallon, offshore drilling is emerging as a major issue in the U.S. Senate race and next week's battle in the General Assembly over transportation funding.

"We could drill everywhere from here to New Jersey, and it's still years away and will only add about 140 days of oil supply to this country," said Warner, a former governor.

His GOP opponent, James S. Gilmore III, has made drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the East Coast, including Virginia, a central focus of his campaign, casting it as the only plausible solution for reducing the price of gas.

"I think the number one challenge for the national security as well as the pocketbooks of regular men and women out there is this challenge we are facing with gas prices," Gilmore, also a former governor, said in a speech this week. "If we are going to increase the supply of oil, then we've got to drill for oil in the United States."

Warner hit back at Gilmore on Wednesday, calling his solution shortsighted and unrealistic. Warner instead unveiled a multifaceted proposal that seeks to reduce the U.S. reliance on oil.

"The Bush-Cheney energy policies not only sound like they were written by Big Oil, they were written by Big Oil, and we are paying at the pumps," Warner said in a speech at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond. "My opponent in this race, who was the biggest proponent of sound-bite solutions, is now advocating the continuation of those very policies right now. I hope this becomes one of the defining issues of this Senate race."

At the state Capitol, however, some legislators are eying the revenue that would be generated by offshore drilling.

Sen. Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach), an ocean engineer, said Virginia would receive $200 million in royalties from companies granted rights to drill for natural gas or oil.

"This could provide Virginia with substantial new revenues that doesn't cost us anything," said Wagner, who has drafted a bill that would divert 40 percent of the proceeds to transportation. "We have the potential in Virginia to play a real leadership role."

Delacey Skinner, a spokeswoman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), said Kaine supports exploration for natural gas -- but not oil -- 50 miles or more offshore to "see what's out there." But Skinner said such efforts should not be linked to transportation.

"The transportation challenges that we face in terms of the shortfall are very clear and very urgent," Skinner said. "Any revenue that could potentially be generated by offshore drilling is probably going to take years to come by."

Warner noted that the United States contains 2 percent of the world's oil supply but uses 25 percent of it. He rejected calls to drill for oil in the Arctic reserve.

Warner instead proposed a series of policies that he said would reduce the price of oil in the short term and the long term. He wants U.S. pressure on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase production, and more power for the attorney general to go after speculators in the United States and abroad who have manipulated the oil market.

He wants to stiffen regulations and roll back tax breaks for oil companies, make it cheaper to purchase a hybrid vehicle, raise fuel-efficiency standards on automobiles, limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and bolster investments in nuclear, solar and wind energy sources.

He also vowed to push for policies that promote technology that makes it easier to burn coal in an environmentally friendly way.

"My opponent's only solution is drill here, drill now," Warner said.

Gilmore accused Warner of "saying the same things that everyone else in Washington has said for the last 20 years."

"That is how we got where we are," Gilmore said in a statement. "We need to drill here and drill now. . . . . Working families are hurting now and it is time for a common sense solution to the problems of supply and demand, not the same liberal theories that have restricted America's energy supply for decades."" (Tim Craig, The Washington Post, June 19, 2008)