The federal government made its first move Thursday toward drilling off Virginia.

The U.S. Department of the Interior issued a call for public comments as it begins considering the environmental effects of offshore drilling.

That would be the first step toward opening 2.9 million acres of waters to leasing in 2011.

The move will be closely followed in North Carolina, where the Outer Banks is just southwest of the area being considered.

"In some ways, North Carolina is the next place after Virginia that ... the federal government would like to go," said Michael Gravitz of Environment America, a coalition of state environmental organizations. "Virginia is the first chink in the Atlantic Coast armor."

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr supports offshore drilling, and Sen.-elect Kay Hagan has backed a compromise bill that would have allowed for some drilling. Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue has said she will appoint a panel of experts to look into the issue. (N&O)

N.C. Transportation officials expect road construction money to continue decreasing over the next two years.

The department's revenue from gas and car sales taxes is down 11 percent, or $317 million, from what was budgeted in July, according to Mark Foster, the department's chief financial officer.

"We're not anticipating a rebound over the next couple of years," Foster told the Joint Legislative Transportation Oversight Committee Thursday.

Foster said the department expects a similar decline in the budget that runs from July 2009 to June 2010. Prices for construction material have skyrocketed, especially on petroleum-based asphalt, while gas and car sales taxes have fallen due to fewer car purchases and less driving. The gas tax also was capped at 29.9 cents two years ago instead of rising with gas prices to pay for similar rises in asphalt prices.

The current dip in gas prices and lower construction bids have helped, Foster said. Both could speed up construction — the good news — but that creates a cashflow problem of having the money to pay for construction that finishes early — the bad news.

"We're not sure where this story ends," Foster said.

A robocall praises U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole on offshore drilling.

The Associated Builders and Contractors' Free Enterprise Alliance is making automated calls to Norh Carolina voters noting that the Salisbury Republican voted to allow offshore drilling.

"America needs energy independence," a woman says in the recorded call. "That's why Senator Dole cosponsored the Gas Price Reduction Act, opening more offshore areas to harvest domestic energy, lift the moratorium on oil shale exploration in the Western states, and reduces our dependency on foreign sources."

Both Dole and Democratic rival Kay Hagan backed a failed bipartisan compromise bill that would allow offshore drilling and promote alternative energy. The Gas Price Reduction Act was a Republican-backed alternative that would have gone further on oil exploration.

The Washington-based group has made two other calls targeting Hagan over earmarks and the state budget. A lobbyist for construction contractors, it is concerned about Hagan's support for a bill that would make it easier to unionize.

After the jump, the script.

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The gas crisis in western North Carolina has Mike Easley thinking of the 1970s.

Long before the Democrat was elected governor, he was in law school in Durham. He drove a Ford Maverick and lived in a trailer park owned by people who also had a nearby filling station.

Like everyone else, Easley could get gas only every other day based on his license plate number.

"I'd study and peek out," he told The Charlotte Observer. "When it looked like the line was the shortest, I'd go get some." (CO)

Libertarian candidate for governor Mike Munger says the state's anti-price gouging law is to blame for the gas shortage.

"We have an idiotic anti-gouging law," Munger wrote in an email, pointing to an article he penned on the subject.

Munger says if a gas station closes, the price of gas is infinite. Nobody can buy gas at any price. Repealing the anti-gouging law, which empowers the attorney general to crack down on stations that crank up their prices, would mean higher prices, but at least there would be gas, Munger says.

"High price does three things: 1.) It makes people drive less; 2.) It makes oil companies find new supplies; and 3.) It makes alternative energy of all sorts economically viable," he wrote.

It may not be possible to get angrier at oil companies, but perhaps this will help.

A top aide to Gov. Mike Easley said Monday afternoon that a big factor in the continuing gas shortage in Charlotte is that some of the oil companies will not let distributors purchase a full allotment of gas from the terminal in Charlotte.

State and local officials last week predicted that a large shipment of gasoline through the pipeline on Friday from the Gulf of Mexico to the gas terminal in Charlotte would help settle down the crisis.

"The tanks at the terminal in Charlotte have plenty of gas," said Alan Hirsch, Easley's policy director. "This large delivery came in as expected and still is coming in."

The oil companies typically allow distributors to buy the same amount they sold last month or more, if they'd like. In times of shortage, however, the companies can restrict distributors to, say, 90 percent or 80 percent of their allotment. Alan Hirsch, policy director for Gov. Mike Easley, said he was told at least one oil company was limiting distributors to 50 percent of their allotment.

"What they say is there's so much pent up demand that if they that if they put out the full allocation, they fear they'll run out before the next shipment," Hirsch said. "This is the concern of the companies: Not to run out too soon."

Hirsch said Easley's office has convinced some oil companies to open up their supplies in areas where there is no shortage, especially port cities that receive gasoline by tanker, such as Wilmington; Chesapeake, Va., and Charleston, S.C. Then he has to convince distributors to make the long haul to get the gas.

"We're trying to connect the distributors with the places where there is gas," Hirsch said." 

Gov. Mike Easley's point man on the gas shortage is trying to figure out if the gas supply line is clogged.

Alan Hirsch, Easley's policy director, was honchoing the gas crisis last week and continues to. Last Thursday, he told Dome and state officials alike that he was assured by gas companies and distributors that a large shipment of gasoline was coming through the pipeline to the distribution terminal in Charlotte.

The big batch of petrol, Hirsch said he was told, would be enough to stabilize the shortage.

Not so much.

"We've been on the phone all morning with every one of the distributors and the oil companies trying to figure out where the problem is," Hirsch said.

More after the jump.

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Beverly Perdue says the governor should be able to invoke additional authority during a gas shortage and that the state and gas companies should have a contingency plan in place for such crises.

Some of the measures that the Democratic gubernatorial candidate said the new authority would allow are steps that Gov. Mike Easley's office already took last week without any such special authority, but the governor currently lacks the power to order gas companies to move supplies to crisis areas.

Perdue likened her proposal to the state's price gouging law, which can be triggered when the governor declares an "abnormal market disruption."

"The governor needs the power to be able to respond," Perdue said in a telephone interview. "The governor would have been able to work with other governors in other states who might not be having the challenge or work with distributors...to make sure trucks could be moved from one place to another."

Neighboring states receive their gasoline from the same pipelines and will be looking out for their own needs.

Easley's office has been working daily with distributors and gas companies, some of whom have been cooperative and some of whom haven't. Perdue seemed to suggest giving the governor the power to order the companies to shift supplies, something that may be difficult to get put into law.

Pat McCrory canceled two campaign events today to scurry back to his day job and tend to the gas shortage and sale of Wachovia in Charlotte.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate scrubbed a "Meet the Candidate" lunch at Fat Buddies Ribs & Barbecue in Waynesville and a rally at the Transylvania County Republican Party headquarters in Brevard.

"He's back on his way to Charlotte now," campaign spokeswoman Amy Auth said around 10:45 a.m.

McCrory scheduled a press conference at 11:45 a.m. in the mayor's office.

More after the jump.

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A new ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee attacks U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole over her voting record on gas issues.