Both men in a runoff for a North Georgia congressional seat say the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shouldn't deter the country from continuing efforts in offshore drilling.
Tom Graves and Lee Hawkins said they would support building similar rigs off the Georgia coast, so long as BP or other companies applied lessons learned from the Gulf spill.
"This is certainly no reason to slow down exploration or production of our resources," said Mr. Graves, a former state representative and the leading vote-getter in the Georgia 9th District Congressional special election earlier this month.
Dr. Hawkins, his opponent in the June 8 runoff, carried a similar tune.
"We've been doing this many, many years and this is one of the few accidents we've had," said Dr. Hawkins, a Gainesville dentist and former state senator.
Both candidates acknowledged the severity of the spill, with Mr. Graves calling it a "tragedy" and Dr. Hawkins urging Georgians to pray for residents and fishermen hurt by the contamination.
They differed however, when it came to their evaluation of the federal response to the Gulf disaster.
In an interview in Chattanooga on Tuesday morning, Mr. Graves said he hoped Congress didn't over-react.
Congressional District 9 Special Election Runoff* Election: June 8* Early voting: May 20 to June 4
"I'm not sure of the role the fed government has to step in," he said. He said he believes leaders at BP are "doing everything they can."
He said he's wary of any more federal "manipulation" in the form of regulations or rules on the energy giant.
Dr. Hawkins compared the problem to his dentistry work, saying that when he's working on a patient, doing nothing is not an option.
"If we can't fix it, we figure out how to minimize it until we can fix it," he said.
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