FRANKFORT — U.S. Congressman Ben Chandler said Friday the surge in Iraq has made the country more secure but the war is an “utterly unsustainable undertaking and we’ve got to get out of it as soon as we can.”

The Democrat from Versailles told about 250 people attending a public affairs luncheon of Lexington Commerce that he has “come around to the notion that we never should’ve gone there” and the war has had the unintended result of strengthening Iran in the region.

He said there is “no silver bullet” to bring down gasoline prices, that he’s open to drilling off shore or in the Alaskan Northern Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) if that’s part of a compromise that focuses on developing alternative and renewable forms of energy and that he thinks coal can be mined in less invasive ways than mountaintop removal.

Later, he told reporters the presidential candidacy of Democrat Barack Obama represents an “opportunity for this country to get past some issues” of race and division, but added the election is the most difficult to handicap of any he can recall.

Chandler said the $300 million the U.S. spends each day in Iraq is hurting the American economy and driving up the national debt.

“None of it is being paid for,” Chandler said. “It’s all been borrowed, largely from the Chinese – now how do you like that?”

Chandler said the country cannot sustain the level of debt incurred during George W. Bush’s administration.

He said the country’s dependency on foreign oil has been a problem for three decades, the political leadership has failed to address it.

“The history of this is that we’ve failed – and you can put the blame on both parties over time,” Chandler said. He called for a national effort to develop renewable, alternative forms of energy on the level of the Manhattan Project during World War II, which developed the atomic bomb.

He told reporters Republicans’ emphasis on more domestic drilling was a political ruse and drilling off shore or in Alaska would not solve the problem, but he said he’d support those moves if they were part of a larger compromise targeted toward development of alternative forms of energy.

Chandler recently persuaded Washington Congressman Norm Dicks, the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment, to take an aerial tour over mountaintop removal sites.

“I wanted him to see the magnitude of it,” Chandler said, “and the chairman was very impressed with the magnitude of it.”

Shortly after Chandler addressed the Lexington Commerce crowd, fellow Kentucky Congressmen, Republicans Hal Rogers and Geoff Davis were at the University of Kentucky to announce a $1.4 million grant for research into refining coal-to-liquid fuels.

Such technology is seen as a boon to Kentucky and its coal industry, but environmentalists and opponents of mountaintop removal fear it’ll just drive up demand for coal.

Chandler said no one is “suggesting we quit the coal business, but I think we can get at this coal in a way that is a little less invasive.” And, Chandler said, “I’d like to see the people of eastern Kentucky get a little bit more of the money.”

Chandler said he’s not surprised Obama hasn’t pulled away from Republican John McCain in the presidential race, because his candidacy marks an historic development in American politics as the first African American nominated by one of the two major political parties.

“We haven’t done this before and when you do something you’ve never done before, people aren’t always comfortable with it,” said Chandler.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.