McCain takes on energy crisis

Republican John McCain, in a new TV ad and the first in a series of speeches, focuses today on record-high gas prices and energy security and independence.

The 30-second spot, which will air in battleground states and on national cable, highlights McCain's departure from Republican orthodoxy and the Bush administration on global warming.
After scenes of traffic 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. Reform. Prosperity. Peace. John McCain."

In his speech in Houston, McCain says "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."

That includes conservation, McCain says, but also includes more use of America's energy reserves, including offshore drilling.

"In oil, gas, and coal deposits, we have enormous energy reserves of our own," he plans to say. "And we are gaining the means to use these resources in cleaner, more responsible ways. As for offshore drilling, it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston. Yet for reasons that become less convincing with every rise in the price of foreign oil, the federal government discourages offshore production."

Even before the speech, Democrats are already attacking McCain, saying he's caving in to Big Oil on offshore drilling.

“John McCain’s support of the moratorium on offshore drilling during his first presidential campaign was certainly laudable, but his decision to completely change his position and tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear today was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades," Barack Obama says in a statement released by his campaign.

"Much like his gas tax gimmick that would leave consumers with pennies in savings, opening our coastlines to offshore drilling would take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and the effect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since America only has 3% of the world’s oil. It’s another example of short-term political posturing from Washington, not the long-term leadership we need to solve our dependence on oil. 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.”

Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman, responded: “Just as he demonstrated with the ‘Surge’ strategy in Iraq, Barack Obama is now faced with the challenge of skyrocketing gas prices, but is once again driven by partisan ideology, ignoring facts on the ground and failing to take principled action for the American people. Hardworking people are struggling with record high fuel prices, but Barack Obama has opposed gas taxes relief, refused to allow individual states to increase energy exploration and threatened important trade agreements that provide more affordable forms of energy.”

UPDATE: Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Karen Finney retorted: “Senator McCain's idea of a 'new' energy independence is apparently recycling the same old failed Bush policies that have cost American jobs, driven energy prices through the roof, and done nothing to make America less dependent on foreign oil. From expanding offshore oil drilling to protecting his friends in Big Oil from windfall profits taxes, McCain's energy policies are another example of how the new John McCain is all about the failed policies of the past. The more voters learn about McCain's pattern of opposing smart and responsible steps for making American energy independent, the more they'll see the 'straight talk express' is apparently running on empty."