North Carolina Democrats join veterans today in urging Congress to adopt stronger fuel efficiency standards.

Rising gas prices is not just a pocketbook issue. It’s also one of national security.

Each day our military puts itself in harm’s way while safeguarding our access to oil supplies in increasingly unstable regions. Our diplomatic leverage becomes compromised when the wealth we transfer to these regions is used to fund terrorism and support extremist ideologies.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Maintaining the fuel economy provision of the Renewable Fuels Act will increase the average overall fuel economy to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 and save 1.2 million barrels of oil per day. That’s twice the amount we currently import daily from Iraq.

North Carolina veterans recognize that our dependency on foreign oil compromises our national security. They have therefore signed a letter urging Senator Dole to support these new standards and North Carolina Democrats join them in support of this critical legislation.

Sen. Dole voted to support these measures earlier this year and we expect her not to disappoint the thousands of soldiers and their families in North Carolina.

“We can help protect American soldiers and reduce our oil addiction at the same time by cutting how much we use,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“It’s just plain common sense,” Meek said. “And making cars and trucks go farther on a gallon of gas is an achievable goal that can be done with current technology and will help consumers at a time when everything seems to cost more while wages remain stagnant.”