Times Herald: Gerlach Touts Economy, Energy
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Gerlach touts economy, energy
By CARL ROTENBERG
Times Herald Staff
In a Friday afternoon interview, Gerlach said, "We really had to look very hard at whether we had the financial resources to be successful through the rest of the primary.”
"To do that effectively we needed to raise another $3 million to do the local cable, plus the mail, plus the radio. We really had to take a hard look at that,” he said. "If we couldn’t, did we want to proceed and stick your name on the ballot for the sake of doing it? We came to the conclusion that we could not raise that money.”
Gerlach said he had "made the right decision to withdraw.”
Gerlach is enthusiastic about running for re-election in the Sixth District.
During his statewide campaigning, Gerlach learned that Pennsylvania residents are most concerned with "the economy and jobs. They are the (top) issues, just as it is across the country.”
Local issues in Pennsylvania include agriculture and farm issues, infrastructure and energy development.
"In the Pittsburgh area, Greene County is the highest coal-producing county in the United States. There is some promising research in conservation and alternative fuels at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon. They see the Pittsburgh region to be the energy capital of the United States,” he said.
"When you tie in the Marcellus Shale natural gas find, which covers western Pennsylvania, and some promising clean-coal technology, that would allow coal to be burned cleanly.”
Gerlach said that Marcellus Shale lies under three-quarters of Pennsylvania in the western, central and northern parts of the state.
"The question is how do you put together the right investment climate here in Pennsylvania so those companies come here rather than go to Ohio, New York or West Virginia,” he said. "That is what is being talked about in Harrisburg: how to create that climate from a tax standpoint, a regulatory standpoint and an environmental standpoint.”
Gerlach said a lot of jobs would be created "if we get the investment climate right.”
He said environmental policy would have to be strong enough to prevent damage to the water table as drilling companies take large quantities of water out of the ground to be used to fracture natural gas pockets deep under the earth’s surface.
Gerlach said his platform for re-election would be "about jobs.”
He attacked the current Congress for "spending, taxing and borrowing too much. That will not lead to a good job creation policy. Jobs are very important.”
He favors energy independence through expansion of the nation’s nuclear power plants and the exploration "off shore” for new oil and natural gas reserves.
"Energy independence still needs to be a key issue for our economic growth, and the issues of taxing and spending,” he continued.
"Are we taxing our small businesses too much? Are we taxing individuals too much?” he said. "Are we being uncompetitive with those taxing policies? Are we driving jobs off shore? Are we spending too much as a federal government and leaving too much debt to our kids?”
"All of those are going to be very important issues for the campaign trail,” he said. "We are spending way too much.”
[ Back to News ]
