Each of the major candidates in Virginia's US Senate race and the three Congressional races in the WTVR viewing area has been invited on the CBS 6 News at 7:30 p.m. with Bill Fitzgerald to talk about their priorities.
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-1st District), who is vying for an 11th term in Congress, visited the CBS 6 studio Tuesday to lay out his agenda.
Wittman said rising gas prices are at least partially due to Russia's inability to sell diesel fuel because of its war against Ukraine.
"Russia is a major producer of diesel fuel, which drives those prices up in the international marketplace," Wittman said. "The one thing that we can do, and that we are doing, is to bring more production back home. We're producing record amounts of oil, but we haven't, in recent years, built any new refineries. The good news is a new refinery is being built now in Brownsville, Texas, as well as a number of smaller ones that'll help us refine the oil that we produce here in the United States."
Wittman acknowledged though, that the new refinery would not impact prices for at least a year.
"Obviously, we'd like for it to come online faster. But the anticipation of more supply too helps to drive down costs," he said. "So that will have an effect. What's happening right now is making sure that we have more relationships with other countries that actually have refined product that we can purchase from them."
Wittman said he objects to President Trump's recent decisions to purchase diesel fuel from Russia and to lift the new sanctions against Russia that Congress passed in memory of late Sen. Lindsay Graham.
"Russia is an adversary," said Wittman. "The Congress passed the sanctions bill. I think the sanctions need to be followed. The president signed it into law, so I disagree with lifting those sanctions. Also, buying diesel fuel from Russia, yes, could impact diesel fuel prices, but what we are doing in turn is providing resources to Russia to continue the war against Ukraine. That does not make sense in my mind for the things that are happening there. I understand it's kind of an energy war back and forth between the two countries, but I do not want us subsidizing Russia's war effort against Ukraine."
As far as regulating or providing federal guidelines for the growth of data centers, Wittman said local jurisdictions would have more authority, but the federal government could provide a framework.
"There needs to be a set of conditions under which all data centers across the United States operate under, and that is the Ratepayer Protection Act that we actually passed out of the House," said Whitman. That says clearly, if a data center comes in, the data center will pay 100% of the cost of energy generation, energy transmission, and energy consumption. Another part of that, too, I believe, is states need to make sure they hold the data centers accountable for any sort of environmental impacts, whether it's sound from a diesel generator, emissions from a diesel generator, any sort of resources like water that would be used."
As far as concerns that federal officers, including ICE agents, might be a visible presence this election, Wittman said they should not have a role.
"We're blessed in Virginia. We have great election officials that are in each of our local electoral boards, as well as the state board of elections," said Wittman. "They have a system there to make sure that our elections take place in an orderly way. I want to make sure that they are in charge of that. It is a state issue under the Constitution. States are in charge, and in turn, localities are in charge of adjudicating and overseeing elections. I am very confident they will make sure that our selection, our elections, are done in a secure manner."
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