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."
Regardless of who wins
We are all in for a rocky road
when will americans wake up and finally take action and come up with an alternative fuel source that will help the earth and will help us become less dependent on the middle east oil and their price controls. we should be smart enough to come up with a fuel that is renewable and can run a combustible engine without giving off harmful emissions.
The oil dependancy is a greater threat than any other, this will take our economy and put it in the toilet faster than any terrorist plot they can come up with!!!!!!!!!
What kind of journalism are you practicing? You devote half of the McCain speech article to Obama's position but when McCain responds to Obama you print a brief one line comment.
Just come out and call yourself the Obama Globe.
More biased, non-sense reporting.
Use Senator McCain in the headline, then paint Obama out to be a hero again?
Another liberal sheep following the heard this Foon is.
Very unimpressive.
But hey.. Maybe Obama is right. Lets just accept using foreign oil and ignore our resources and pretend they dont exist.
Typical leftist response. Dont use foreign oil, but lets not use our own either. Funny how all of these lefties are the loudest crybabies of all, yet i see them driving thier SUVs to work everyday.... hmmmmm.
It would not take a decade to reap benefits from this. And yes, it is a short term solution while the rest of his energy policy (which of course you dont mention) is taking place because alternative energy aside from coal, and oil WILL take a decade at LEAST to have any effect. Do some more research before you type.
Typical arrogant close minded loser.
Get in line with your sheep now! im sure they miss you.
On McCain it's to little to late. More jerk around from old Washingion thinking. How many more years do the people of this nation have to endure presidents who don't listen to it's people and seem to think they know more about less and less.
John McCain should have never been shot down in the first place. Outside of spending 5 1/2 years captive what else has he done? Flip flip allot. How about going back a few years to the keating Five??
Sure John the nation respects you and so do the oil companies. Get real we are on a sinking boat whan it comes to energy and oil!
What are we going to do to keep the automobiles running in this country???? Why yes we can run them on Cindy's beer.
Sending a message to the oil producing countries that the U.S. is going to take advantage of our own resources will have an immediate impact on the world oil market. However, talk alone will not do it. McCain should introduce legilation to go after all of our oil and gas reserves.
McCain should focus on eliminating our need for oil rather than its satiation. Its the exact response an oil company wants to hear, it takes a national crisis such as record gas prices to bust through picket lines and coastal conservation activist. Create or wait for a panic and then everyone forgets about the environment.....offer a real solution rather than a pacifier McCain. Im a republican and nothing about McCain gives me a reason to support him, hes already a one time loser, lets get somebody in their fresh and Im not talking about Obama. Dump McCain lets take a chance with a long shot somebody with passion.
If we're going to use oil, it makes sense to produce more of our own, for a limited time, until we start using other energy technologies. However, this contradicts McCain's statements about supporting CO2 reduction, unless efficiency gains can cut the overall need for oil significantly in the next decade or less.
I hope one or other of the algae oil schemes proves to be as productive as they are currently promised to be. They seem to be almost too good to be true, but if they work out, they would go a long way towards making a lot of the current debate about energy and CO2 emissions moot.
As insurance, it might be wise to ramp up our capability to produce fuel-recycling, waste reducing nuclear energy systems (Google "Integral Fast Reactor" for one example of such) to provide a steady baseload capacity to complement greatly expanded wind and solar energy sources.
Not much more time is available to debate this stuff, let's get on with it.
The total lack of understanding of the realities of our economic system by the democrats borders on the criminal. Is there anyone out there that can point to a government "solution" to an economic problem that hasn't ended up as an abject failure that continues to drain dollars away from the private sector that has proven to be the real solutions to the needs of the "people". I believe that the best energy solution is for the government to stop getting in the way of Americans creating everything that we need.
$41,000,000,000 Exon 2007 Profit. It is time to turn our back on the modern day railroad barrons and move on to the technologies that do not harm our planet or our pocket books.
Incredible. I can't believe the democrat party get away with actually denying us our own national resources. We may not have the worlds supply of oil but common sense dictates if you can get some at home it's certainly cheaper than getting it all from somewhere else. And why do the democrat politicians always decide they need to tax successful businesses. The last time they did a "windfall profits" tax was Jimmy Carter and that didn't reduce gas prices, it destroyed the gas supply causing the gas shortage. The average American needs to simply do a little self education. Exxon mobile is a GLOBAL, world wide corporation. They didn't make 40 billion off the U.S. They made 10.5 cents /gallon profit. So yeah democrat morons, cut their profits in half, save us a whole 5 cents on the gallon.
Who does McSame think he's fooling?
Americans are too smart to fall for this crap again.
Give it up McBush, you're wasting your time and ours.
NO OFFSHORE DRILLING, Sorry.
How can you acheive energy independence if you don't use the resources that we have in Alaska and off shore. Something for the quick fix is to give tax payers a credit for any gas purchases over $2.00 per Gal. Congress has been remiss on handling energy problems for years. It is time they stopped their petty bickering and thought of the entire country for a change. No more politics as usual. People are fed up.
Bush/Mccain '08!
Dear Senator McCain,
Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. The email I sent a few hours ago on changing your position on offshore drilling and the ANWR region did not realize that you had made the commitments you made in Houston. For we Independents, that is a huge plus in your favor that will bring millions of former Repubs like us, and life long independents to your cause. Thank you.
Dear Senator McCain,
Bravo. Bravo. Bravo. The email I sent a few hours ago on changing your position on offshore drilling and the ANWR region did not realize that you had made the commitments you made in Houston. For we Independents, that is a huge plus in your favor that will bring millions of former Repubs like us, and life long independents to your cause. Thank you.
Standing up to lift the ban on drilling took courage, yet he knows he has a lot
of people behind him; possibly even the majority of voters.
Senator Obama is right, McCains "plan" is just a short-sighted gimmick to woo voters. We need to be thinking about how to transition away from oil, not how to just pump more of it. Even from a national security perspective, we should be preserving whatever oil reserves we have in US territory for when/if we can no longer get supplies from other places in the world. We should have the areas primed so that, God forbid, some type of major conflict in the Middle East/Africa/South America causes us to not be able to get oil imports, we have a source to use until the conflict is resolved.
Right now oil is more expensive because of commodities speculation, not from lack of supply. Eating away at our remaining significant reserves is short-sighted and not particularly smart.
Once again the Democrats want to block drilling and be dependent on the Middle East while taxing "Big Oil". Yes Mr. Obama, new taxes are the way to go. That is very proactive for our economy. I can't even believe there are idiots out there that would think that we should not be using any resources available to become less dependent on the rest of the world. Yes this includes alternative energy but also drilling anywhere that we have to. These are the same idiots that think holding hands around the campfire with the terrorists will change the world!
WELL! LISTENING TO MC CAIN'S SPEECH BRIEF'S, I'M BEGINNING TO "GET" HIM. HE SOUNDS A LOT LIKE HUCKABEE DID!
I JUST HOPE MORE PEOPLE LISTEN TO WHAT MC CAIN ACTUALLY SAYS, RATHER THAN WHAT THE NEWS TALKING HEADS ARE "SAYING" HE SAYS!
WE DON"T NEED ANY MORE "BIG SPENDERS" IN THE WHITE HOUSE, LIKE A CERTAIN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHOM IN 2007 "SECRETLY" ENTERED A $1,000,000.00 "AID" BILL FOR HIS WIFE'S OWN HOSPITAL IN CHICAGO, WHERE SHE WAS V.P. SO THEY COULD BUILD A NEW CUPILOE TO SIT ON ?!?!
I agree with both of them. We need to open off shore drilling and we also need to find other energy sources. We have made the Arab countries very wealthy, while the middle class American is struggling. I also believe in wind produced energy and solar energy. That;s where we should be putting our funds. We need to protect our resources, but we need to be realalist. At this point we need to drill until we can change our energy program. That old slogan "WE CARE FOR OWN" has disappeared. Shame on Us.
It only makes sense to use our own resources (off shore drilling ) Rather than relying on foreign countries to supply us with oil. Short term we need to do this and long term we need to look at alternative energy resources. John McCain will work to do this to help our nation in this energy crisis.
Finally one thing I agree with McCain on.
god help this country if mccain were to be elected presiden
We did not get ourselves in this energy situation over night and there is no instant solution. It is going to take time, SO, why doesn't Obama keep his big mouth shut and quit critizing McCain and anyone else who is giving sensable solutions to our energy problems?
Our energy situation should not be a political football.
Won't the Oil Companies just pass the cost of the "windfall profits tax" to the consumers, increasing the cost of gasoline???
Why risk offshore drilling. There is no man on earth who can guarantee complete safety and assure no oil spillage. As it is now, we are contaminating the waters of our planet with garbage, wastes, etc.. We as the human race are arrogant enough to think we can control nature. Hello............... The oceans and seas of our planet are a source of food for wildlife, sealife and peoplelife. How about rekindling some of our old wells or check out some new sources in land. The expense would at least be more reasonable than drilling in saltwater.
The world's population cannot be supported on solar and wind power. People need to grow up and come to a reasonable solution here. We have to exploit whatever energy resources we have and spend the money to do it cleanly until a serious alternative technology matures to replace it.
Hello Folks... Well I'd like to know what happened to that “Huge Oil Find" a number of years ago in the plains of Montana and Wyoming. It was mentioned very quietly back then that there is a huge reservoir under many of the Western States that would compare the Middle East as a thimble to that 55 gal drum. The Hushed discussion then was the US was going to hold on to that one until the Middle East was sucked dry, at which time the announcement would be made about this amazing discovery of untapped crude. I think it’s time for the Government to come clean on that one and pop the cork on that well if it in fact exists!
I guess Obama's plan is to tax the oil industry and push alternatives and somehow that will get us on a faster track to energy independence? It will probably be a few decades before a lot of the alternative energy technologies have any significant contribution. What's his plan in the interim? Depend more on foreign sources of oil? Obama failed to mention or purposely left out that we have a quarter of the Earth's proven recoverable coal reserves.
It seems we have a population that loves to use energy, but then try to act like they are so concerned about the environment. If people were so concerned about th environment, why was the SUV the most popular vehicle until gas prices got higher? It is not the the concern about global warming that is killing the SUV sales, it's the price of gas.
I was a Hillary supporter, and now my choice is between McCain and Obama. McCain's position of drilling for our own oil is music to my ears. This puts me closer to McCain, while Obama sounds too idealistic and naive on this issue. Oil is the most established source of energy. The world is not going to "get off oil" until we run out. That's the plain ugly truth, and if you don't believe it you're a pie-in-the-sky type. It's going to be Oil, Oil, Oil, until there's none left, and when that happens, and only then, we'll move on to the next thing, probably with a lot of pain and suffering in the process. Possibly war. There's not going to be a "smooth transition" off oil. Face facts. We're human beings. This is how we operate.
In the rush and haste for off shore drilling there is an assured disaster in the making...so kiss the Sunshine State good-bye and embrace the Gulf of Goo. Too close/too dangerous......and the oil produced from such industry will be too late to help in the current crisis. Face it. It's big business that done us all in and we let them do it to us. Would to God there was any other candidates than the ones we have this year.
McHypocrit can't be Pro-Fight Global Warming and Pro-Drill. They are incompatible goals. You lower the price of oil, you increase it's demand.
He really doesn't get economics. At least he admits it.
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