Last night Governor McDonnell addressed a crowd of almost-entirely-not college students at the University of Mary Washington. It wasn’t the students fault for not being there- it was only their second day on campus, so the Governor’s town hall was under the radar. Despite that, there was a group from the Mary Washington environmental club that was excited to ask the Governor about his stance on offshore drilling and wind development.

Here is Abbie Rogers, a Winchester native and sophomore in anthropology and environmental studies, asking Governor McDonnell why he continues to support offshore drilling.

Governor McDonnell spoke at length about his support for offshore drilling- and for offshore wind- but failed to answer Abbie’s concerns. While the Governor is correct that currently Virginia and the US depend on oil and other fossil fuels for our energy use, he did not address Abbie’s questions about why he continues to support offshore drilling. He claims we need domestic offshore oil to avoid relying on ‘unfriendly’ foreign nations, but the Navy and NASA have voiced concerns about drilling off Virginia’s coasts. Beyond that, solving the foreign oil problem with a domestic oil problem is only shifting the problem, not providing a solution. In a followup question to Abbie’s, the Governor was asked about his plan to keep Virginia competitive in offshore wind development. He again spoke favorably about wind, but focused more on his concerns about regulatory burdens, such as permitting timelines, than his plans to bring wind development to Virginia’s coasts. Offshore wind is part of a true solution, one that may time to implement but that other countries- and states- have started and Virginia is being left behind.

Below the jump, the transcript of Abbie and Governor McDonnell, since the video quality was poor.

Abbie: After everything that happened in the Gulf, including the $11.6 billion loss by the Virginia oyster company, Imagine the disastrous effects that could have on Virginia. Why do you still support offshore drilling?

Governor: Let me ask you this, do you think we should totally rely on foreign countries for oil and gas, energy?

Abbie: Absolutely not, but I know that Virginia has really strong offshore wind and if you use Virginia wind power that would be a lot more sustainable, better for environment and safer.

G: Okay, let me ask you one other question.

And we’re strongly perusing offshore wind, I’ll talk about that more in a minute, but should we not peruse all of our natural resources: coal, natural gas, nuclear, offshore oil and gas if we have supplies like we do in Virginia, wind, solar, biomass, wouldn’t you think we should try to use all of that, as long as it can be done in an environmentally friendly way?

Abbie: I think you have to take in the dangers in those situations, the mishap in the gulf was all deepwater drilling and if we drilled off the coast of Virginia, 80% of that would be in deepwater so you’re taking kind of a big risk when you also have other things that would be a lot easier and you’d be taking a lot less of a chance in possibly ruining industry and/or the environment.