In reversal, Obama backs tapping U.S. oil reserve
LANSING, Mich. - Barack Obama 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. - Barack Obama 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 new proposal includes two reversals of positions he has taken in the past: He had steadfastly fought the idea of limited new offshore drilling and was against tapping the nation's emergency oil stockpile to relieve pump prices that have stubbornly hovered around $4 a gallon.
Not only did Obama push for drawing from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he also reiterated his changing position on offshore drilling - first revealed Friday - suggesting he could live with it if done in an environmentally sound way and as part of a bipartisan energy compromise.
In a speech in Michigan, Obama, who turned 47 yesterday, 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 embarked on a week to focus on energy issues. "It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy."
Republican candidate John McCain, speaking in Lafayette Hill, Montgomery County, again advocated more oil drilling off the U.S. coast.
Obama and McCain are emphasizing solutions to the country's energy woes as they seek an advantage in polling that shows the race competitive just weeks before their conventions. The issue cuts across the electorate, resonating with voters of all stripes, and it gives the candidates a way to talk both about domestic and foreign issues.
Obama, who as recently as last month argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve proposed that the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from its stockpiles and said that releases from the reserve in the past have lowered gas prices within two weeks.
Explaining his change in thinking, campaign energy adviser Heather Zichal said that 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.
Obama said that U.S. politicians had failed for three decades to deal with the energy crisis and that McCain had been "part of that failure." He called tapping the petroleum reserve a short-term solution to a long-term problem.
Also Monday, Obama's campaign unveiled a television ad that criticizes McCain's energy policies.
Both candidates have altered their positions since earlier this year. McCain abandoned his opposition to drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and now aggressively advocates of such drilling.
Yesterday, Obama said it was his "single overarching goal" to end U.S. reliance on oil from the Middle East and Venezuela over the next 10 years, a project whose government price tag he put at $150 billion.
The petroleum reserve is capable of releasing four million barrels a day. It is unclear what impact such release might have on global oil prices, or gas costs at the pump. But a clear signal by the United States to use its emergency reserve to a significant extent could put downward pressure on oil markets at least for a time, energy experts say.
Obama said that, under his plan, oil companies would bid to borrow easily refined light sweet oil from the reserve, and replace it later with heavier oil.
