In reversal, Obama's energy plan OKs off-shore oil drilling
LANSING, Mich. - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., put forward a broad energy plan yesterday designed to end U.S. reliance on imported oil within 10 years and shore up his standing amid a tightening White House race and high anxiety over gas prices.
LANSING, Mich. - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., put forward a broad energy plan yesterday designed to end U.S. reliance on imported oil within 10 years and shore up his standing amid a tightening White House race and high anxiety over gas prices.
Obama's proposal, though, includes two significant reversals of past positions: He had steadfastly fought the idea of limited new offshore drilling and had been against tapping the nation's emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon.
In a speech in Michigan, the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting also endorsed long-term work on hybrid cars and renewable energy sources.
"Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face," he told a supportive audience as he began a week's focus on energy issues. "It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy," he said.
Obama, who as recently as last month argued against tapping the petroleum reserve, proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from the stockpile and said past release from the reserve have lowered gas prices within two weeks.
Explaining his thinking, campaign energy adviser Heather Zichal said Obama "recognizes that Americans are suffering."
The reserve contains 707 million barrels in salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana. It was last tapped shortly after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. *
