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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Sen. Johnny Isakson hoping for a “Gang of 51”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, (R-Ga.) in a talk before the Atlanta Kiwanis Club today, used his platform to sell a national energy policy.
Isakson has belonged to a “Gang of 10” — five Democrats and five Republicans — in the U.S. Senate that is pushing for a new energy bill to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.
Isakson was pleased that as of today, the “Gang of 10” has now become a “Gang of 16” with three more Republican senators and three more Democratic senators. And he hopes that group will increase its ranks to a “Gang of 51,” which would be a majority in the Senate.
The senator told members of Kiwanis that the United States faced similar energy issues in the late 1970s, but the nation didn’t put the policies in place to make the country more independent from other oil-producing countries.
“This is not our second chance,” Isakson said. “This is our last chance.”
If the United States does not enact a sound energy policy, Isakson said that “America will become a second-class country.”
Isakson did summarize the Gang of 16’s energy policies: be able to extract natural resources with the U.S. borders, ie: off-shore drilling for oil; develop nuclear energy by using France as a model; encourage the use of bio-fuels; provide incentives for wind and solar energy; and encourage innovation and new technology.
Until we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we will continue subsidizing nation’s unfriendly to the United States, Isakson said, mentioning Venezuela, Iran and Russia.
“We are funding a lot of things that are going on the world because they are rolling in money,” Isakson said of those countries.
Isakson left a substantial amount of time for questions, but no one asked him about the current presidential election or the possibility that he will change his mind about running for governor.
A special moment of the luncheon was when the senator was introduced by his daughter: Julie Isakson Mitchell.
“He’s always been just that — ‘Dad,’” she said, adding that he always attended his children’s middle school dances and sporting events no matter whether he was running a company or running for public office. “He always was a family man and continues to be one today.”
When Isakson took the podium and thanked his daughter, he told the group that being a father was the “second best thing in life.” Then he quickly followed up with: “The best thing in life are grand-children.”
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