Obama Calls For Tapping Oil Reserves

Democrat Changes Position On Selling U.S. Stockpiles In Attempt To Lower Gas Prices

(CBS/AP)  Barack Obama put forward a broad energy plan Monday 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 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.

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," the Illinois Democrat 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," he said.

Presumed Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, speaking in Pennsylvania, again advocated more oil drilling off the U.S. coast. "Anybody who says that we can achieve energy independence without using and increasing these existing energy resources either doesn't have the experience to understand the challenge that we face or isn't giving the American people some straight talk," he said.

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 respective national nominating conventions and the final stretch of the campaign. The issue cuts across the diverse electorate, resonating with voters of all stripes, and it gives the candidates a way to talk both about domestic and foreign issues. High gas prices are causing food and transportation costs to surge and affect people's everyday pocketbooks in a weakened economy, while the country's dependence on foreign oil has emerged as a pivotal national security concern.

Obama, who as recently as last month argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve located in caverns in Texas and Louisiana, 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 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 have failed for three decades to deal with the energy crisis, and that McCain has been "part of that failure." He called tapping the petroleum reserves a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

"Like George Bush and Dick Cheney before him," Obama said of the Arizonan, "he sees more drilling as the answer to all of our energy problems, and like them, he's found a receptive audience in the very same oil companies that have blocked our progress for so long. In fact, he raised more than one million dollars from big oil just last month."

Also on Monday, the Obama campaign unveiled a television ad that criticizes McCain's energy policies. "After one president in the pocket of big oil we can't afford another," says the ad, referring to Bush's previous work in the oil industry. (Read more about and watch the ad.)

McCain once opposed off-shore oil drilling but switched a few weeks ago - and received more than a million dollars in campaign funding from the oil and gas industry a short time later, reports CBS News Correspondent Dean Reynolds.

Both candidates have moderated their positions since earlier this year. McCain has become an aggressive advocate of drilling on the Outer Continental shelf after abandoning his past opposition. Obama signaled on Friday he could support limited new offshore drilling if it were needed to enact a compromise energy policy.

"We're not going to achieve energy independence by inflating our tires," the Republican told employees at the National Label Co. in Lafayette Hill, Pa. Part of Obama's energy plan calls for consumers to fully inflate their tires for improved gas mileage. (Read more on Republicans' mocking Obama's call to inflate tires and the Obama team's response.)

McCain also called on Obama to join him in calling for Congress to return from its August recess to pass a comprehensive energy policy.

Gas prices have risen steadily as an issue since last November, according to a recent AP-Yahoo News poll. The issue rose to second place after the economy more broadly.

Obama said it was his "single overarching goal" to end U.S. reliance on oil from the Middle East and Venezuela over the next ten years, a project whose government pricetag he put at $150 billion.

The petroleum reserve is capable of releasing about 4 million barrels a day. It's unclear what impact such release might have on global oil prices, or costs of gasoline 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.

In 2000, President Clinton used a similar "swap" of government oil as proposed by Obama, making available 30 million barrels because of concern over rising prices and supply worries in advance of that year's winter heating season. The move at the time was criticized by Republicans as an attempt to help then Vice President Al Gore's presidential bid.

Obama said that, under his plan, oil companies would bid to borrow easily refinable light sweet oil from the reserve, and replace it later with heavier oil.

Elgie Holstein, an Obama energy adviser, said that, while fewer refineries now are capable of refining the heavier stuff into gasoline, in the future that won't be the case.

[johnbush2-2009]

The Dems have betrayed the Jews by having an antisemitic muslim as their candidate.

[johnbush2-2009]

Obama is an imbecile. Tapping our oil reserves????
I honestly don''t know which is worse? This or when he said we should inflate our tires.

[standlee5]

Obama Calls For Tapping Oil Reserves"

So stupid. Does he understand the concept of National Security. I know he has absolutely no USA military background but he''s so pedestrian it''s scary.

[minnick8-2009]

Zerato

You remind me of Al Gore. He is so good at telling us we need to cut down and conserve, but he is such a hypocrate. If we all lived like him, there wouldn''t be enough space in the country for all of us. Are you a hypocrate too?

[minnick8-2009]

See, a little conservation and education hurt no one.

Posted by zerato

But you still haven''t told us anything about you which I would really appreciate since you are so good at calling people on the right neocons with no education and no education.

Tell us about your house, your vehicles, your last vacation, how far you commute to work, how many miles per gallon you use on a weekly basis and what you are doing to conserve.

[jimfinster]

WASHINGTON (AP) %u2014 A new poll finds Barack Obama is leading John McCain nationally by 6 percentage points thanks to big leads he is enjoying among women, minorities and younger voters.

The Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows that Obama is leading his Republican rival 47 percent to 41 percent. McCain has a 10-point lead among whites and is tied with the Democrat among men, but Obama is leading by 13 points among women and has huge leads with minorities and the young.

The poll was released Tuesday following a week in which the two camps accused each other of bringing race into a campaign in which Obama is seeking to become the country''s first African-American president.

[zerato-2009]

Posted by minnick8 at 11:56 AM : Aug 05, 2008

I am glad you are educated and drive an aspire. See, a little conservation and education hurt no one.

[minnick8-2009]

Is conservation and education so alien to you. Oh I forget, your a neocon

Posted by zerat

I would really like it if you would come back in and answer my post. I bet you won''t, because I bet you would be embarrassed to reveal your house, your cars, your commute, and how much resources you consume compared to what I truthfully revealed about me.

[wellhell3]

Posted by nolalou at 01:38 PM : Aug 05, 2008

Maybe somebody should give your car a tune-up, inflate the tires, park it in your drive-way and take the keys away.

And then maybe you''ll realize how utterly STUPID Obscamma''s proposals ARE!

[minnick8-2009]

Maybe somebody should drill your head, and see if there is still a brain in there!!

Posted by nolalou

I have put so many posts on here about how the Dems, and leftys have successfully stopped the development of our resources for the past 30-40 years, that it makes me tired. It would post it again, but I''m busy. So take your anti drill and shove it up where the sun doesn''t shine.

[nolalou]

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay less, vote against politicians who don''''''''t get it.
Posted by ragnar30066
Hallelujia!! I think I love you!!
Posted by minnick8

You want a polition who dosn''t get it? Try John McCain! H was against offshore drilling for years, so what Jeb Bush when governor of Florida, but now McCain is suddenly for it, but I don''t hear you calling him a flip-flopper!

Opening up more off-shore drilling will not get you to pay less! The Bush administration''s own estimates are that you wouldn''t get to full production until 2030, and then it would supply about 1% of our current consumption! Obmama proposed, among other things, that if we checked our tire pressure regularly, and kept our cars tuned up, it would save as much as off-shore drilling, and it would take effect now, not 15 years from now! McCain ridiculed that plan, but reports in Time and other magazines stated that Obama is right, in fact conservation could save lots more than more drilling!

Maybe somebody should drill your head, and see if there is still a brain in there!!

[minnick8-2009]

Is conservation and education so alien to you. Oh I forget, your a neocon

Posted by zerato

So, zerato, tell us about your efforts at conservation. I''ll tell you about mine:

I grew up in a pioneer house. We were lucky, we did have running water which had been piped in. The house I raised my two daughters in was and still is, a post WWII house made of cinder blocks. I moved out of it 5 years ago, and now live in a small townhouse apartment three blocks from work. My car is a 1997 Ford Aspire.

Education is not foreign to me. I work at a University where I earned an interdisciplinary degree in education, business and history.

So, now that you know about my efforts at conservation and about my efforts at education, who are you? What are your living conditions? What do you drive? How many miles per gallon does your vehicle achieve? How many miles a day to you commute round trip?

[minnick8-2009]

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay less, vote against politicians who don''''t get it.

Posted by ragnar30066

Hallelujia!! I think I love you!!

[ragnar30066]

Here is the list of the 20 largest oil companies in the world; Obama''s plan to increase taxes would only apply to the 17th and the 20th largest on this list.

1 National Iranian Oil Company (Iran)
2 Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Arabia)
3 Iraq National Oil Company (Iraq)
4 Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (Qatar)
5 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (UAE)
6 Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (Kuwait)
7 Petroleos de Venezuela.S.A. (Venezuela)
8 Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (Nigeria)
9 National Oil Company (Libya)
10 Sonatrach (Algeria)
11 Gazprom (Russia)
12 PetroChina Co. Ltd. (China)
13 OAO Rosneft (Russia)
14 Petronas (Malaysia)
15 OAO Lukoil (Russia)
16 Petroleos Mexicanos (Mexico)
17 ExxonMobil Corporation (United States)
18 BP Corporation (United Kingdom)
19 Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. (Egypt)
20 Chevron Corporation (United States)

It makes Obama sense to punish the two oil companies on the list that are American, just because you can.
His previous idea of inflating tires and regular tune-ups was a better idea. A far better idea is to impose a "windfall profits" tax on government which benefits from the higher cost of gas without contributing a single drop of new oil.

Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay less, vote against politicians who don''t get it.

[wellhell3]

Posted by MCvent at 10:25 AM : Aug 05, 2008

Is conservation and education so alien to you. Oh I forget, your a neocon


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Posted by zerato at 10:59 AM : Aug

Conservation is not alien to anybody, and we''re all doing it. But you people act like it''s some new brainchild of Obscamma''s! Got a clue for ya, IT WASN''T HIS BIG IDEA! AND IT ISN''T A SOLUTION FOR EVERYTHING!

[zerato-2009]

Posted by MCvent at 10:25 AM : Aug 05, 2008

Is conservation and education so alien to you. Oh I forget, your a neocon

[mcvent]

The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month''''s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent.

The truth is getting out about Obama and frankly I don''''t need to be lectured by Obama and most Americans feel the same way we don''''t need no uppity amd pushey turban wearing politician tell us what to do...

Learn spanish, learn french, turn your thermostat to 80, no pick up truck, no SUV''s.. Yes Master Obama

[peterp111]

McCain is far more liberal than the conservative Bush- so for those who are STILL on the broken record that McCain is another Bush- get over it- it isn''t fact.

Obama is far more a liar than Bush was - and for those who can''t see that fact, you are trully blind.

[mycommentspg]

Study the real issues and the real candidates, your choice in November will be easy. http://mycommentspage.blogspot.com/

[wellhell3]

On the far right you have two groups: the uninformed (blissfully ignorant) right wing authoritarian followers (sheep) that need to be told who to hate and who to fear.

(cont)


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Posted by taotxzen

Very true


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Posted by chitown639 at 08:56 AM : Aug 05, 2008

And then on the far left, you have Obscamma that just plain old hates Americans, American traditions, promotes that America is BAD, is going in the wrong direction, needs CHANGE, needs to have it''s Constitution buried in some global authority, and needs to resemble some fomenting European entity willing to re-write history for it''s Muslim immigrants, and pay them extra welfare for their 21 freaking wives!

And the pinko commie proposes that he''s the Messiah to do it!