VIDALIA — The United States needs to develop a comprehensive energy policy that alleviates the pain that consumers feel at the gasoline pump, U.S. Sen. David Vitter said.

Vitter’s comments were made Thursday at a town hall meeting in the Vidalia Municipal Complex.

“The price at the pump has grown from a challenge and a problem to almost a crisis today,” Vitter said.

“It is a real hardship on a whole lot of Louisiana families.”

To address those issues, the country needs to adopt an “all of the above” energy policy, which includes adopting new technology, new energy sources, greater efficiency and conservation, Vitter said.

“It also means developing more of our energy resources right here at home — we don’t do that effectively now,” he said. “The U.S. is actually the single most energy rich country in the world, bar none. When you look at the total energy resources of other countries, we are first, Russia is second — they are close — and Saudia Arabia is third, and they are not even close.”

The senator said the problem is that the U.S. is the only country that puts much of its energy resources off limits, for example by not allowing oil drilling on the east coast.

Allowing the further development of domestic energy will create jobs that cannot be outsourced, Vitter said.

“It (will create) major additional revenue to the federal government that we can use to help reduce debt,” he said.

Increasing oil supply helps reduce prices at the pump, Vitter said.

When an audience member asked Vitter if he thought the Keystone pipeline from Canada to the Texas gulf coast would be built soon, Vitter said the project requires a permit from the U.S. State Department because it crosses a national border. Vitter said he has supported mandating the project move forward, but the congressional support has not been enough.

“I think if we drag our feet long enough, if we delay long enough, Canada can build a pipeline to the west and sell the oil to China,” he said.

When Vitter was asked about the issue of illegal immigration, he said it is important to remember that the United States is a nation of immigrants.

“We are all sons and daughters of immigrants,” Vitter said. “Traditionally we have a system of legal immigration, a system of rules, but over the last 20 years that system has broken down.”

The nation needs to beef up border security and adopt stricter rules for the hiring of immigrants, Vitter said.

The senator said the law that automatically makes anyone born on U.S. soil a citizen — even the child of immigrants who did not enter the country legally — serves to attract illegal immigration.

“That is a huge magnet to parents to come over here to better their children’s lives,” he said. “I don’t blame the parents for that. I blame us. I think that is a ridiculous rule.”

During the meeting, Vitter presented Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland with a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on the same day that the Vidalia Municipal Complex opened.