KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The price for a barrel of crude is now $135. The national average for a gallon of regular is $4.07. Tennessee's average is $3.91, and in and around the Knoxville area, drivers can expect to pay about $3.90. Congressman Jimmy Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) says that's way too high. He says the federal government needs to do something about it.

As consumers dig deeper in their pockets to pay for gas, Congressman Duncan says its time to do some more drilling for oil here at home.

Driver Richard Kilgore says, "Fifty bucks to fill up my 2007 Malibu."

Kilgore is tired of watching the dollars and cents add up faster every time he goes to the gas pump. He's not alone.

Rep. Duncan says, "Every place I go, people are coming up to me and talking about the gas prices and wanting the Congress to do something about it."

Duncan thinks the time is right to resurrect an old idea. He's sponsoring a bill to allow oil exploration and drilling in protected areas, places like Alaska's wildlife refuge and some offshore locations.

Rep. Duncan says, "We've got over a trillion barrels of recoverable oil right now in this country that are locked up. They're off limits."

Duncan says Alaska alone could produce a million barrels a day. He says it might take years to start flowing, but he says the decision to drill would drive prices down immediately by sending a message to other oil-producing nations. Duncan made his announcement at a Pilot gas station, with company founder Jim Haslam by his side. Haslam says his company hates the higher prices too, claiming they make only about one percent profit on gas.

Haslam says, "You know they tend to complicate this issue, and the basic issue is this... We have to produce more petroleum where we have control over it."

Congress passed a bill like this in 1995, but President Clinton vetoed it. Duncan says high gas prices may get it passed now. But Richard Kilgore, who just paid fifty dollars for a fill up, isn't buying it.

Kilgore says, "They haven't done anything about it yet, why would they do it now."

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Congressman Jimmy Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) and Pilot Corp. founder Jim Haslam II talked about energy prices and what Congress needs to do to provide relief to the American people from high energy prices at the Pilot Travel Center on Strawberry Plains Pike Friday.

Duncan said, "Everywhere I go, people come up to me and ask, 'What are you doing about gas prices?'"

Those prices in East Tennessee have reached as high as $4 or more a gallon in some places.

Duncan says he plans to co-sponsor a bill allowing domestic oil exploration.

At the meeting, Congressman Duncan talked about the need to develop alternatives to petroleum, but said that, in the mean time, Americans agree that "we should be exploring more of our own oil right here in our country." It's a desire Duncan said is being ignored by the majority in Congress.

Democrats and Republicans have fought hard over drilling for oil in places like the the Florida Coast and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in Alaska.

"No other nation in the entire world has as many restrictions on developing their own oil and natural gas resources," Duncan said. "Every other nation regards their natural resources as economic assets. It is a shame there are some elitists in Congress who regard the natural resources here in the United States as environmental liabilities."

Duncan said even a slight increase in oil production would create jobs and send a message to oil-exporting countries that they can't continue to drive up the price of oil.