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Don Young's campaign contacted me following a story I ran earlier this week on a two-person debate at Pioneer Park between Diane Benson and Ethan Berkowitz, who are running as Democrats for Young's seat.

During the debate, both Benson and Berkowitz criticized Young for having outworn his welcome at the Capitol. They also used their respective time to focus largely on energy issues.

Young's campaign manager, Mike Anderson, pointed out that Young would have had plenty of ammo to fire back had he been at the debate. In particular, he said, a current bill, HR 6107, from Young, has drawn well over 100 co-sponsors as a proposed "compromise" between proponents of alternative and renewable energy projects and those who prefer opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling — both efforts Anderson said Young has supported for years.

The bill calls for using tax revenue from drilling in ANWR for a dedicated fund for alternative and renewable energy projects.

Here's the e-mail to me from Anderson on Wednesday:

"First, you may note that Rep. Young holds the Ranking Member position on the Committee on Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over our nation's public lands, and energy development.  It is a position in the Minority.  Regardless of his position in either the majority or minority, he has been a long time advocate of developing our nation's and particularly Alaska's energy resources in a safe and responsible manner ... both fossil fuel, alternative energy, and renewable energy sources.    "In fact, he developed and sponsored HR 6107 (see www.thomas.gov).  As of this afternoon, his bill, H.R. 6107 the American Energy Independence and Price Reduction Act, has 159 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, including some career ANWR opponents.  What's unique about his bill is that the bonus bids and royalty revenue from ANWR leases would be deposited in an alternative and renewable energy "trust fund."  It is consistent with his position, and puts the priority where it belongs to try to get Congress to compromise on an energy solution for our nation that will benefit all ... including all Alaskans.   "As a note, as a Member of the Minority, his ANWR bill now has more cosponsors than Rep Markey's (D-MA who chairs the ad hoc Global Warming Committee and is a member of the Natural Resources Committee) bill to shut ANWR down permanently.  

"Along the same theme of the development of alternative energy, there is money authorized through Defense Appropriations, put there by Rep. Young, for a test project which is underway at Eielson AFB to introduce alternative energy sources based on locally available resources for the USDOD and in Alaska.  He's been a tireless supporter of alternative energy development at Chena Hot Springs!

"These are just a few examples of what Rep. Young is doing with Alaskans to mitigate and solve the current energy crisis and work our way back to energy independence.  It is hard work ... it is lifelong work.  But he remains the advocate for proactive energy solutions, and is considered by his colleagues to be one of the foremost energy experts in the Congress.

"So our comment is this:  the Democratic challengers should really be doing their homework before they make assumptions on how Rep. Young is addressing energy issues.  For Rep. Young, energy is his number one issue because it has long been Alaska's number one issue.  He's been poked fun about it, he's been mischaracterized about it ... but he has stood for reducing the impact high energy costs have always had on Alaskans -- particularly in the Bush and Interior -- for years with high costs that are driving folks to leave their homes in search of cheaper costs of living.  Because of the relationships he has built over 36 years with other Members, even hard line anti-ANWR members of Congress are finally beginning to wake up thanks to Don Young!"