Drilling Williams

It seems that the only thing Craig Williams has to offer is that he is in favor of drilling for oil, everywhere and anywhere.

In recent (9/19/08) Delco Times article, it says "Craig Williams, the Republican candidate for the Seventh Congressional District, blasted his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-7, of Edgmont, this week over his support of the Comprehensive American Energy Security and Consumer Protection Act."

Williams must be inspired by his connection with would-be VP Sarah Palin and the GOP convention chants of "Drill Baby Drill" as it seems this is his only issue.

Sestak sticks to the facts, as he has stated over and over again, that there are thousands of unused drilling permits, that the proposed ANWR drilling will have little impact, and that drilling is only a short term answer to bigger energy problem.

Pandering by Williams, knowledge and hard work from Sestak. That's par for the course in this campaign.

Alaskans drill Williams

In response to Craig Williams' piece in the Aug 6 2008 News of Delaware County advocating drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Eleanor Huffines, the Alaska Regional Director of the Wilderness Society wrote to the paper this week. (The response is not online.)

In short, Huffines debunks not only Williams' conclusions, but his methods. In typical Republican fashion, it appears that Williams listened to all the "pro-drilling partisans" and "vociferous pro-drilling forces" while ignoring invitations from native groups and environmental groups (including the Wilderness Society) to meet with him. One of the groups that Williams met with was called Artic Power, whose website says "The organization is committed to securing congressional and presidential approval of legislation opening the Coastal Plain of ANWR to responsible oil development. " As Huffines notes, it's "a front group who sole purpose is to lobby Congress to drill..."

Williams went there in favor of drilling in ANWR, met a bunch of people who agreed with him, and came back with the same notion. Williams got "a skewed picture of what drilling would entail." Kinda like watching Fox News.

This is not the kind of work that would make him a good Congressman. But it does give the voters of PA-7 some idea of how he would operate - he'd fall right in line with the Bush - McSame - oil lobbyist clique that is screwing up our country right now.

Williams' Alaskan Adventure - Drilling for the Eskimo Vote in ANWR

PA-7 Watch is back!

Just in time to find Joe Sestak's opponent Craig Williams returning from his Alaskan Adventure to "steal the show" at a McCain rally, according the Delco Times.

Turns out the "rally" - later described as "the event, which drew a crowd of about 60 in the retirement community's Cardinal Clubhouse auditorium." Wow, I bet Williams rallied the seniors for McCain, since McCain is one of them!

But I got off track. Seems that Williams is having a hard time finding supporters in the PA-7 district, so he took his campaign to Alaska. According to the DelcoTimes story, "Williams discussed his recent trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the need for the United States to decrease its dependence on foreign oil by expanding drilling options and developing alternative fuel sources,..."

So Williams wanted to investigate first hand what would happen to ANWR if we drilled there. I'm not sure, but I think the idea is to figure out what would happen after the drilling happened.

Anyway, he wrote a bit in the News of Delaware County (not available online) where he talked about going to various Eskimo villages, including the village of Kaktovik, where he says the villagers are all for drilling.

So Williams thinks it's a good idea to campaign in Alaska when he has just a few months to go in an uphill battle against a popular incumbent in a Pennsylvania Congressional district. If he's trying to drill hes way to votes here by working the Eskimo voting block, it looks like his campaign is going to come up dry.