The Plans: Energy

John McCain Will Commit Our Country To Expanding Domestic Oil Exploration. " Undoubtedly in reference to his support for offshore drilling. Most people are aware, as experts have said, that drilling off the coast of this nation will not produce even a drop of oil for at least ten years. Long after McCain's term has ended. The fact is that oil has to be found to be drilled. Finding oil is hard enough to find WITHOUT millions of gallons of salt water sitting on top of it (this whole energy crisis is proof of that). After this oil is found, a rig must be built and oil extracted, which, again, is hard enough to do sans the many atmospheres of H2O weighing it down. His second bullet is a reworded version of this one so we move on.

Here McCain addresses the "clean" aspect of his energy plan with statements of his support for a zero-emission car tax rebate and funding for a privately developed battery for use in plug in hybrids. He also addresses the need to move away from food-corn based ethanol to cellulostic ethanol which is produced essentially from waste. Here is where things get really hazy because McCain's site only sparsely uses an affirmative vow to action on a given issue. Read for yourself:

"John McCain will issue a Clean Car Challenge to the automakers of America, in the form of a single and substantial tax credit for the consumer based on the reduction of carbon emissions. He will commit a $5,000 tax credit for each and every customer who buys a zero carbon emission car"

(It should be noted that $5,000 is no where near enough to offset the cost of a fuel cell vehicle compared to a gasoline one, and that a similar tax credit ALREADY exists.)

"A $300 million prize should be awarded for the development of a battery package that has the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

"John McCain Supports Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) And Believes They Should Play A Greater Role In Our Transportation Sector. "

"John McCain Believes Alcohol-Based Fuels Hold Great Promise As Both An Alternative To Gasoline And As A Means of Expanding Consumers' Choices."

He follows this with:

"The second generation of alcohol-based fuels like cellulosic ethanol, which won't compete with food crops, are showing great potential. "

a simple statement on the nature of cellulosic ethanol and no plan for implimenting it, or even a commitment to do so. In fact, no part of his website's Energy Policy includes any form of guaranteed governmental support for renewable energy of any kind. The closest authentically green energy gets to a comitment from John McCain is this: "John McCain believes in an even-handed system of tax credits that will remain in place until the market transforms sufficiently to the point where renewable energy no longer merits the taxpayers' dollars."

"John McCain Will Effectively Enforce Existing CAFE Standards."

Excellent! He will carry out his Constitutional duty as President to enforce a law Congress has already enacted...

I could take this blog much further addressing the rest of McCain's energy plan, but I'm sure you all will agree this is quite long enough. For the rest of the info I encourage you to go to his website and read about it, then be sure to visit Obama's for the comparison. Having read both policies I have personally drawn the conclusion that McCain's plan is essentially shooting in all directions hoping to hit something, unfortunately instead of having a detailed direction for our nation's energy future he has a series of statements that simplistically outline the nature of the problem. He's not offering real answers, just making statements hoping that people will ignore the fact that he has promised little more than to find more oil, and enforce existing regulations. The true nature of McCain's energy policy is probably best detailed by his accepting $1.3 million dollars from oil execs and lobbyists, and his loyal devotion to Bush's policies. McCain has voted with increasing support (100% this past year) for the President's plans on EVERYTHING.

Again, read McCain's written policy (if you can even get through the various errors in his web page) and tell me what plan or commitment is to be found.

Then go read Obama's, and I can promise it will be clear that he not only has a plan for change, it is the best plan for this nation's energy. Or just wait until next week when I will outline Obama's plan.
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Back from Vacation

I spent two weeks off taking a break, and four days off to enjoy my free time at home. Back into the fray, lets see a few of the events I missed:

McCain criticized Obama for not visiting the injured troops while on his world tour. Of course Obama was told he could not bring the media that spend the whole trip on his plane with him, that's official DoD policy, so he decided it would be best not to try and politicize their wounds. McCain was rejected for the same type of trip in the Spring, because it was during his primary run and the DOD saw the conflict that it would create.
Click the link for the rest.

Obama's suggestion that inflating our tires would help reduce gas consumption (the DoE has said this may help up to 4%) was immediately mocked by the McCain campaign, they released some tire gauges with "Obama's Energy Plan" on them. Of course McCain says that properly inflating tires is the right thing to do.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a top McCain advisor, said that raising raising taxes on Social Security is not out of the question as part of a comprehensive reform package that the McCain campaign is offering. McCain has repeatedly said that he, unlike Obama, would refuse to raise any taxes and would only reduce them.

The Democrats have refused to vote on offshore drilling, while the Republicans have refused to allow votes on any comprehensive energy plan. Both of them blame each other, and the American people lose.

Walmart is forcing managers to go to meetings that focus on the negatives of an Obama presidency, higher wages, health care, carbon taxes. Mostly they are afraid of being forced to open their workforce up to unions.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted on 7 counts of failing to report several hundred thousand dollars worth of renovations to his home from an oil company that has pushed for drilling in ANWR. Sen. Stevens himself has been a large advocate of opening up ANWR to drilling and has repeatedly been scrutinized for his connections to donors.

Bruce Ivans, the main suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks, killed himself as the FBI began to close in around him. Charges were set to be filed, after his lawyer got a phone call indicated what the charges would be, he apparently took a large amount of prescription Tylenol with codine.

When asked about experts opinions that offshore drilling wouldn't produce oil until 2020 at the earliest at an event last week, McCain said that the oil executives he met with told him it could be done within months, maybe 2-3 years at the most. In addition to that, McCain's joint campaign fund with the RNC (which allows him to raise money but avoid nagging problems like $2000 caps on donations) raised over $880,000 from oil companies after June 16th, the day he came out in support of offshore drilling. He raised less than $50,000 in the previous 17 months of his campaign from that same business sector.

A small sampling of the events taking place while I was slacking off.
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