McCain calls for lifting ban on offshore drilling

Democrats accuse him of flip-flopping

Warning that America's security is at stake, Senator John McCain called yesterday for conservation, renewable energy, and more aggressive exploration, steps he said would help to end US dependence on Middle East oil.

In laying out his energy policy, the presumptive Republican nominee sought to woo voters angry over $4-a-gallon gas and to carve out his independence from President Bush.

But by saying he would lift the federal ban on offshore drilling, he dismayed many environmental groups, which had praised him as an ally on global warming and had said either he or Democrat Barack Obama could provide the presidential leadership needed for real progress.

And McCain provided an opening for Democrats, who accused him of flip-flopping on the offshore drilling issue and kowtowing to Big Oil - the same moneyed interests critics say have controlled US energy policy under Bush.

Unlike Bush, however, McCain still opposes oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, but the senator wants to let other states allow oil exploration off their coasts.

"With gasoline running at more than four dollars a gallon, many do not have the luxury of waiting on the far-off plans of futurists and politicians," McCain told cheering political leaders and oil industry executives in Houston yesterday. "We have proven oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. And I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use."

Even before his speech, Democrats pointed out that McCain supported a moratorium on offshore drilling during his 2000 presidential bid and that he had voted against renewable energy incentives.

Obama accused McCain of "the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades."

"Instead of giving oil executives another way to boost their record profits, I believe we should put in place a windfall profits tax that will help to ease the burden of higher energy costs on working families, and we should invest in the affordable, renewable sources of energy that Senator McCain has opposed in the past," Obama added in a statement.

Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, said offshore drilling would threaten his state's all-important tourism economy and is not the solution.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you can't drill yourself out of the problem," Nelson told reporters on a conference call organized by the Obama campaign. "You have to turn to alternative fuels."

McCain responded to the criticism by bashing Obama on his support for a windfall profits tax on oil companies. Though Democrats said McCain suggested he was open to the idea just last month, McCain tried to use it to tie Obama again to Jimmy Carter's presidency.

"If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea, too - and a lot of good it did us," McCain said in his Houston speech. "Now, as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need. I'm all for recycling - but it's better applied to paper and plastic than to the failed policies of the 1970s."

Despite their strong words, both McCain's and Obama's energy policies promise a stark departure not only from the 1970s, but from the Bush administration.

While they differ on specifics, both McCain and Obama seem to understand that because 80 percent of greenhouse gases are emitted by fossil fuels, reducing US reliance on oil not only improves the nation's energy security and independence, but helps reduce global warming, many independent analysts say.

"Both Senators McCain and Obama have been concerned about climate change for a long time," said Manik Roy, director of congressional affairs for the nonpartisan Pew Center on Global Climate Change in Arlington, Va. "We're confident that both of them would be very strong leaders on this issue."

McCain is trying to feed perceptions of his independence from Bush on energy issues with a new TV ad, which he unveiled yesterday and will air in battleground states and on national cable.

After scenes of speeding traffic, belching smokestacks, and melting icebergs, the announcer declares, "John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago.

"Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions," the announcer says, as scenes of windmills and other alternative energy sources appear. "A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our environment."

In his speech yesterday, McCain declared, "The next president must be willing to break with the energy policies not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America."

But McCain's support for offshore drilling seems in direct conflict with the "very important realization" that climate change and a green energy policy are inseparable, said Seth Kaplan, vice president for climate advocacy at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston.

"The last thing we should be doing is trying to squeeze every last drop of oil if we're trying to change the energy paradigm," said Kaplan. His group, in its first lawsuit in 1978, opposed drilling in the Georges Bank fishery.

The inescapable conclusion, Kaplan said, is McCain is pandering to voters, or as the late senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts said during his 1992 presidential bid, he is being a "pander bear."

"It's awfully hard not to see that political animal lumbering across the landscape," Kaplan said. "That's what this looks like."