For the second time in four months, the people of the Gulf Coast are facing a potential economic and environmental disaster. While the full extent of today’s oil platform explosion off the Louisiana coast remains unclear, today’s explosion underscores yet again our nation’s need for a new energy policy.

A policy that creates thousands of new jobs while freeing us from a dangerous reliance on oil from oppressive Middle Eastern regimes. A policy not written by oil industry executives and lobbyists but one that brings together and empowers our brightest scientists, engineers, innovators and entrepreneurs. A policy that invigorates our economy and ensures we no longer soil our own nest.

The wrong approach is the one championed by my opponent in the South Carolina Legislature, where one of his primary legislative initiatives was to hand over our state’s coastline to Big Oil. While he would endanger our state’s crucial tourism industry and sentence our state and nation to continued reliance on a dangerous and dirty industry, I will fight to lure the jobs of the future to South Carolina. While he is offering nothing but more of the same failed policies that have entangled us in the Middle East, I will push for the kind of change we need to make us safer and ensure we lead the world in the economy of tomorrow.