Menendez Talks to POLITICO

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Apr 13, 2011 at 10:07:29 AM EDT

Menendez also has strong advice for 2012 candidates, to seize the debate over gas prices, the budget and federal spending, offering a well-framed debate that resonates with most Americans simplistic cries of things like "Drill, baby, drill." That's a particularly attractive piece of advice as we approach the 1-year anniversary of BP's Deepwater Horizon explosion and the massive oil spill that dirtied the Gulf of Mexico. Menendez is against allowing an expansion of offshore drilling - both our senators are - and has an idea how Democrats can respond legislatively to the BP oil spill disaster. "Use it or lose it," Menendez says: legislation that would essentially penalize companies that do not produce on drilling leases they have already been granted.