Altmire says robo-calls miss point

U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-McCandless) said Wednesday that opening new domestic locations to oil drilling is uneccessary because oil companies already own plenty of land they are not using.

Altmire was responding to a robo-call launched Wednesday by the advocacy-group Freedom's Watch. The calls, which were made to about three dozen Democratic congressmen nationwide, criticize them for opposing bills that allow more domestic oil drilling.

"I support the ability of oil and gas companies to drill domestically, but do not believe that we should open up new areas until the 68 million acres of federal land currently held by the oil and gas companies are utilized," Altmire said in a statement to PolitickerPA.com.

"The real question here is why aren't oil companies currently drilling in these area?" he added.

Altmire and U.S. Reps. Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney were the three state Democrats to receive the calls in their districts. Freedom's Watch said it was targeting "vulnerable" Democrats with its ads. 

Kanjorski's campaign has already called the robo-calls untrue.