Pat McCrory is pitching offshore drilling as a jobs issue.
In answer to a question about the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, the Republican gubernatorial candidate said that he supports drilling for oil and natural gas off the coast of North Carolina to bring new jobs to Eastern North Carolina.
A former employee of Duke Power, McCrory said he wants to get North Carolina "into the energy business."
He also said that he favors increasing the use of nuclear power for the same reason.
To now, the debate over offshore drilling has mostly focused on lowering high gas prices — a goal that a federal government study says would not help until at least 2017.
Since McCrory spoke second, Perdue did not address offshore drilling after he spoke.
In recent weeks, she has said she would make a decision on whether to allow offshore drilling as governor after hearing from an independent panel of experts.
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