Pearce: We need oil industry to ‘tell us what to do’

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Steve Pearce is gaining attention today for a controversial comment he made about how to solve the nation’s energy crisis.

“At a time when we’re facing $4 gasoline, I think that you need people who’ve been in the energy industry to tell us what to do,” Pearce was quoted as saying in an article published today in the Los Angeles Times.

Pearce is a U.S. House member from Hobbs and an oilman. According to the article, he was speaking in the context of defending the oil industry’s involvement in national politics.

The article is about GOP congressional candidates facing a barrage of advertising attacking their ties to oil companies. Some Republican candidates are distancing themselves from oil companies at a time when Americans are fed up with record gas prices and the companies’ record profits.

Not Pearce.

His comment prompted an attack from the Democratic Party of New Mexico.

“When will Steve Pearce learn? We need leaders who will do the right thing and stand up to the big oil companies, not take marching orders directly from them,” the party’s executive director, Josh Geise, said in a news release.

The news release asks who in the energy industry Washington should take advice from: “People like Big Oilmen George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whose energy policies made us more dependent than ever on foreign oil with no relief in sight? Or like multimillionaire Big Oilman Steve Pearce, who has repeatedly voted against commonsense measures like investing in alternative energy and punishing price gauging at the pump?”

Pearce’s campaign spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the spokeswoman for Pearce’s Democratic opponent, Tom Udall.

Update, 2:35 p.m.

Udall spokeswoman Marissa Padilla had this to say:

“It’s shocking that Steve Pearce’s reaction to the oil crisis is asking Big Oil what other favors they may need. Tom Udall wants to fight for our interests, not help special interests even more,” she said. “Tom Udall favors increased oil production and he also has been pushing for more alternative energy since his first day in Congress. Tom Udall knows we have to do it all to reduce gas prices and make America more independent from foreign oil.”

Update, 4:05 p.m.

Pearce spokesman Brian Phillips released this statement:

“Tom Udall and the extreme environmentalists continue to stand in the way of American prosperity with an agenda that has driven up gas prices and made it harder on families. He continues to defy the majority of New Mexicans who support increasing domestic supply and investing in nuclear power,” Phillips said. “Steve Pearce has a long record of supporting a change in American energy policy and is proud to defend it.”