Secretary, senator campaign for Coburn on energy

Secretary, senator campaign for Coburn on energy

TULSA, Okla. - Oct 18 (The Associated Press)

A member of President Bush's Cabinet and a Republican senator from Kansas charged Monday that Brad Carson would help Senate Democrats stall the president's energy policy.

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham and Sen. Sam Brownback campaigned with GOP Senate candidate Tom Coburn in Tulsa as the former congressman outlined his plan to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.

Abraham and Brownback said Carson, if elected, would join with other Senate Democrats in filibustering a bill backed by the GOP and Bush to open protected Alaska wilderness to oil and gas exploration.

A vote for Carson is a vote to put another bill opponent in the Senate and could give the Democrats the majority in Congress' upper chamber, Abraham and Brownback said.

"If they become the majority, I think we know what the outcome will be," Abraham told reporters gathered at Tulsa's Summit Club. "We will be without a national energy policy."

Carson's campaign said Coburn had called the Department of Energy, which Abraham leads, a "wasteful and totally ineffective" agency that he had sought to eliminate while he was in Congress. The Democrat's campaign said Coburn was trying to divert attention away from some comments he has made during the race.

"Tom Coburn is battling himself in the U.S. Senate race," said Carson's spokesman Kristofer Eisenla. "Tom Coburn has made irresponsible and insensitive comments about every group in Oklahoma including seniors, veterans, Native Americans, and the people of Oklahoma City."

In his energy plan, Coburn said he supported drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, development of alternative energy sources and tax credits for companies who adopt policies to conserve energy.

The former congressman and Muskogee physician said he would support tax credits to spur energy companies to produce harder-to-find oil and gas from mature fields like those in Oklahoma.

"We need to create some stability for investment in the energy sector for Oklahoma to continue to be a major player in the U.S. energy industry," Coburn said.

In a statement from his campaign, Coburn said the country should set a goal of "energy independence" by the end of the decade.

But Abraham said he doubted that the United States would ever be entirely free of energy imports and even lesser degrees of independence are likely farther away than 2010.

"It depends on how you define that term," Abraham said.

Coburn explained that he was proposing the country set an unattainable goal in hopes of generating even more progress than would otherwise occur.

Oklahoma's Senate race, which polls show is tight, is one of only a handful of open seats in the country. It could help decide the Senate's partisan makeup.

Later Monday, two physicians and a certified public accountant appeared in Oklahoma City and disputed claims by Attorney General Drew Edmondson that Coburn committed Medicaid fraud when he did not fully disclose medical procedures he performed on a 20-year-old woman.

Dr. Craig Evans, a family physician in Edmond, said Coburn, an obstetrician likely saved the woman's life and that there is "no area where it could be fraud."

Edmondson, a Democrat who supports Carson, told The Associated Press last week that fraud occurred when Coburn did not disclose the full procedure on a Medicaid reimbursement form. If he had, Medicaid would have refused to pay anything, he said.

But Patty Raines, a certified public accountant in Oklahoma City, said Medicaid was properly billed and that Coburn was not required under regulations of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the state's Medicaid provider, to disclose the procedure that was not compensable.

In a statement, Edmondson said a physician's failure to provide a signed consent form or statement of emergency "is a violation of Medicaid rules and procedures for disbursement of federal funds and therefore constitutes fraud.

"It's one determination to form the opinion that an act constitutes fraud and another to determine prosecutive merit. This case probably would not have been prosecuted," Edmondson said.

Coburn's campaign demanded that Carson pull a negative TV ad that accuses him of committing Medicaid fraud. Eisenla said there are no plans to pull the ad.

Oklahoma's Senate race, which polls show is tight, is one of only a handful of open seats in the country. It could help decide the Senate's partisan makeup.

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