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McKinney selected as delegate to GOP national convention
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Candidate for Congress Ray McKinney thanked the delegates of the 12th District Republican Convention for electing him delegate to the National GOP Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

“I am honored and humbled that the delegates chose me to represent them at the national convention,” said McKinney, an engineering consultant and former energy company executive. “What a great political party.  Two years ago, I had never been to a Republican meeting.”

McKinney, a graduate of Effingham County High School, said several delegates told him they like his message that the GOP needs to get back to its principles of fiscal responsibility and true representation of the people.

“That’s the message I’ll be taking to St. Paul in September,” he said.

The convention, which met in Statesboro on April 20, elected two other delegates: Lt. Col. Wayne Mosely, a surgeon in the Army Reserves, and John Lewis an engineer from Louisville. The alternate delegates are political consultant and former congressional aide David Cutbirth of Reidsville, Metter City Councilwoman Ann Craig and Georgia Southern graduate student James Hall of Statesboro.  

“I believe we have an excellent delegation that will represent the 12th District well,” said McKinney.  

McKinney faces former congressional aide John Stone and former radio talk show host Ben Crystal for the Republican nomination for the 12th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The convention also passed a resolution submitted by McKinney that calls for specific solutions to rising gas prices. It proposes a number of short- and long-term solutions, including:  
• Stabilize and increase the value of our currency by reducing government borrowing and spending, setting a standard that puts faith in the U.S. dollar.

• Eliminate the 31 different blends of gasoline in the U.S. and streamline the process so that supplies can be moved and stored in the U.S. in an economic fashion.

• Open up available reserves for access, which would be used to market oil on the free market, providing revenues to be used to reduce the national debt, stabilize dollar and lower pressure on the world market.

• Open up oil shale exploration to reduce pressure and pay down the national debt.

• Build nuclear power plants to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and create an infrastructure of cheap nuclear power which can be used as an alternate energy source. This would reduce greenhouse gases by 60 percent in 20 years. Mandate the Nuclear Regulatory Commission work with private industry to develop “copy exactly” technology for nuclear power plants.

• Mandate the EPA to work with private industry to develop and build “copy exactly” oil refineries which can be placed around the country. This would reduce pressure on the market, create jobs, protect U.S. interests from damage to localized natural or un-natural disasters so that another Katrina type storm should not be able to affect the national economy.

• Develop a national energy plan to reduce use of fossil fuels by 50 percent over the next 30 years. Work with private industry to develop hydrogen storage and delivery, develop and produce hydrogen powered vehicles to be used by federal, state and local government vehicles. Build an infrastructure of manufacturing and fuel availability to convert the private fleet to alternate fuels within 30 years.

• Develop technologies and manufacturing capabilities that can be marketed to the rest of the world with a goal of reducing demand and use of carbon based fuels and creating jobs.