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By Michael Powell
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Barack Obama took Exxon Mobil’s report of a record $11.68 billion profit last quarter and his own speech on energy policy and fashioned a rhetorical mortar shell aimed at Senator John McCain.
Mr. McCain’s corporate tax plan, he claimed, would yield $4 billion a year in savings for oil companies while his proposed federal gas tax holiday would pay for half a tank of gasoline over the course of an entire summer.
“So under my opponent’s plan, the oil companies get billions more and we stay in the same cycle of dependence on big oil that got us into this crisis,” he told more than a thousand people in a college gym here. “That’s a risk that we just can’t afford to take. Not this time.”
The Democratic candidate then turned to his own plan: A $150 billion investment over 10 years in alternative energies and fuels. (The funding of this plan is not entirely clear.) He counseled optimism, promising a transition to an economy based thousands of new businesses working on wind, solar and bio-fuels.
“We can’t have a policy that tinkers around the margins while going down an oil company’s wish list — it’s time to fundamentally transform our energy economy,” he said. These steps are not far-off, pie-in-the-sky solutions.”
Energy policy is, in fact, a tricky political business for the candidates. This spring, Mr. Obama successfully turned Senator Hillary Clinton’s advocacy of a federal gas tax holiday against her, portraying it as a step that would save voters precious few dollars and beggar the federal highway fund. Senator McCain also endorses this gas tax holiday.
When told that Mr. Obama said that the average American could save as much money by keeping their tires filled with air as drilling for new oil promises, Mr. McCain replied:
“He suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas,” Mr. McCain said. “My friends, let’s do that, but do you think that’s enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don’t think so.”
But as oil prices top $4 a gallon, Mr. McCain’s advocacy of off-shore oil drilling is a different matter. The Republican candidate acknowledges drilling will have little short-term value (The Bush Energy Department estimates that new off-shore drilling would not result in more production and lower prices for at least ten years). But he portrays this step as a long term strategic winner, and recent polls show that message beginning to resonate with voters.
Mr. Obama counters that oil companies already have 68 million acres of federal land and off-shore waters under lease for exploration, and that these are largely untouched. Oil companies are in fact exploring oil production on some percentage of these acres, obtaining permits and even drilling holes. But wide expanses are not yet productive.
The Democratic candidate has tackled the drilling question on two levels, as bad policy and as fundraising politics.
“It won’t lower prices today. It won’t lower prices during the next Administration,” he said. “While this won’t save you at the pump, it sure has done a lot to help Senator McCain raise campaign dollars.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...s-energy-plan/
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Barack Obama took Exxon Mobil’s report of a record $11.68 billion profit last quarter and his own speech on energy policy and fashioned a rhetorical mortar shell aimed at Senator John McCain.
Mr. McCain’s corporate tax plan, he claimed, would yield $4 billion a year in savings for oil companies while his proposed federal gas tax holiday would pay for half a tank of gasoline over the course of an entire summer.
“So under my opponent’s plan, the oil companies get billions more and we stay in the same cycle of dependence on big oil that got us into this crisis,” he told more than a thousand people in a college gym here. “That’s a risk that we just can’t afford to take. Not this time.”
The Democratic candidate then turned to his own plan: A $150 billion investment over 10 years in alternative energies and fuels. (The funding of this plan is not entirely clear.) He counseled optimism, promising a transition to an economy based thousands of new businesses working on wind, solar and bio-fuels.
“We can’t have a policy that tinkers around the margins while going down an oil company’s wish list — it’s time to fundamentally transform our energy economy,” he said. These steps are not far-off, pie-in-the-sky solutions.”
Energy policy is, in fact, a tricky political business for the candidates. This spring, Mr. Obama successfully turned Senator Hillary Clinton’s advocacy of a federal gas tax holiday against her, portraying it as a step that would save voters precious few dollars and beggar the federal highway fund. Senator McCain also endorses this gas tax holiday.
When told that Mr. Obama said that the average American could save as much money by keeping their tires filled with air as drilling for new oil promises, Mr. McCain replied:
“He suggested we put air in our tires to save on gas,” Mr. McCain said. “My friends, let’s do that, but do you think that’s enough to break our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? I don’t think so.”
But as oil prices top $4 a gallon, Mr. McCain’s advocacy of off-shore oil drilling is a different matter. The Republican candidate acknowledges drilling will have little short-term value (The Bush Energy Department estimates that new off-shore drilling would not result in more production and lower prices for at least ten years). But he portrays this step as a long term strategic winner, and recent polls show that message beginning to resonate with voters.
Mr. Obama counters that oil companies already have 68 million acres of federal land and off-shore waters under lease for exploration, and that these are largely untouched. Oil companies are in fact exploring oil production on some percentage of these acres, obtaining permits and even drilling holes. But wide expanses are not yet productive.
The Democratic candidate has tackled the drilling question on two levels, as bad policy and as fundraising politics.
“It won’t lower prices today. It won’t lower prices during the next Administration,” he said. “While this won’t save you at the pump, it sure has done a lot to help Senator McCain raise campaign dollars.”
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...s-energy-plan/
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