Hagan, Dole support offshore drilling

Both candidates for U.S. Senate in North Carolina raced Wednesday to declare their support for offshore drilling, just three months after the two opposed the idea because of concerns it might harm the environment and tourism.

Disputing an ad that started airing Wednesday, paid for by Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a spokeswoman for Democratic challenger Kay Hagan said Hagan supports oil exploration off the coast of NC as a way to lower gas prices. Colleen Flanagan said Hagan backs such drilling as part of a package of proposals that includes investments in alternative energy.

"We need to increase the amount of gas we can get to working families," Flanagan said. "Working families can't continue to sit by and pay gas prices close to $4 a gallon while half of Washington says you have to drill and half of Washington says you can't drill."

Both Hagan and Dole were previously vocal opponents of drilling.

Dole has long supported a federal moratorium on such exploration off the NC coast, saying it was necessary to protect the state tourism industry and marine habitat. She changed her mind in June, also citing high gas prices.

At that time, Hagan, a veteran state senator, slammed Dole for the decision, saying "empty rhetoric and false promises won't lower gas prices." But a month later, Hagan softened her stance by signing on to a bipartisan proposal offered by a small group of U.S. senators that included drilling, saying she was willing to approve such exploration as part of a compromise.

Flanagan said Wednesday that Hagan supports the idea of drilling as a solution and called Dole's ad a "lie."

Dole spokesman Dan McLagan said the campaign was under the impression that Hagan opposed offshore drilling, saying she's repeated the mantra in interview after interview.

"I don't think Hagan can keep track of what she has flip-flopped on anymore," McLagan said.

The plan Hagan supports would open up spots in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and allow Virginia, NC, South Carolina and Georgia to have the choice of drilling off their coasts. Flanagan said Wednesday that Hagan would also consider other drilling proposals.

Dole supports giving the states the option of doing offshore work and has also advocated for alternative energies.

Drilling has become one of the top issues this election year. Polls indicate that the American people widely support the additional exploration, something that has triggered some politicians to shift their positions.

But the federal government has expressed doubts on whether new offshore exploration would affect gas prices.

The Interior Department estimates that opening the remaining U.S. coastal waters to drilling could offer access to as much as 18 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the 574 million acres. Of that, about 3.8 billion barrels of oil and 37 trillion cubic feet of natural gas are suspected to be off the Atlantic coast.

Yet experts believe it could take years before production begins.

A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration last year said leasing of the areas likely wouldn't begin until 2012 for the Pacific, Atlantic and eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the plans wouldn't significantly affect production or prices before 2030. The report indicated that the new oil would do little to move prices after that.