US News
Obama calls for end to foreign oil dependence in 10 years (Roundup)
By Chris Cermak Aug 4, 2008, 21:06 GMT
Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called on the United States to end its dependence on oil from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years as part of a broad speech laying out his energy plans on Monday.
Obama, who celebrated his 47th birthday Monday, said he would direct the 'full resources' of government towards promoting renewable energy sources, investing 150 billion dollars over the 10-year period.
'Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It's gonna take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy,' Obama said in Michigan, home to the nation's largest auto manufacturers.
Obama challenged struggling automakers in the United States to retool towards more fuel-efficient cars in the face of surging petrol prices that have led to slumping sales of sports utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
General Motors Corp last week reported a 15.5-billion-dollar loss in the second quarter and a 27-per-cent drop in July auto sales on a year earlier.
Obama called for 150 million plug-in hybrid vehicles to hit the roads by 2015 and said he would aim for 10 per cent of energy to come from renewable sources by the end of his first term in office.
US consumers have been reeling from an economic slowdown and rising petrol prices that have become a focal point of the election campaign between Obama and his Republican rival John McCain.
McCain, who advocates energy independence by 2025, has called for lifting a moratorium on oil drilling off the coast of the United States to reduce the immediate pressure on global crude oil prices and expanding the country's use of nuclear energy. He has repeatedly hammered Obama for refusing to do the same.
'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 we face or isn't giving the American people some straight talk,' McCain said in Pennsylvania Monday.
But Obama repeated a pledge - first made last week - that he would support expanded oil drilling as part of a wider compromise on energy that is making its way through Congress.
The Illinois senator also called on the US to release some oil from the strategic petroleum reserve to help reduce prices and advocated an immediate 1,000-dollar tax rebate for consumers, paid for by a windfall-profits tax on US oil companies that have reported record profits this year.
McCain urged Congress to return from a five-week summer recess in order to fast-track a deal on energy relief for consumers. The Arizona senator said he was prepared to leave the presidential campaign trail to help get a solution through the legislature.
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Older Talkback
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This is a good illustration of the democrap's way they will handle everything, once they are in office.
obama is a case history illustrating that if say the same thing often enough folks will begin thinking it is true/possible
I 'call for' a gorilla to parachute out of an asteroid and hand me a zillion dollars in gold.
Gee, I had as much effect as Obama calling for everything under the sun, and then calling for the opposite in a few hours.
I call for Barack Obama to shut his pie hole.
patriot but it's getting a little stale now.
You say: 'Our Nation, our Homeland has been sold, raped, and ravaged by many outsiders and insider traitors...'
Outsiders??????
Sorry, but it was all home-grown.
The people who raped, ravaged and ruined your country
were all your own.
McCain surrogates contended on the Sunday news program that the Arizona Republican's turn toward drilling, which he had once OPPOSED, showed how McCain would respond decisively to a crisis??? And when Obama changes his mind, he's called a flip flopper - go figure!
...but the de facto position of MCCains party is to back domestic drilling. MCCain is simply embracing his own parites position.
This means he would actually go forward, were he to be President, because he would need that parties support.
Obama on the other hand, mouths 'compromise' on drilling, in a party completely opposed to it. This 'compromise' would last exactly one second after he is inagurated and then THAT would be the last of it for four years.
Is mCCain a flip-flopper? Perhaps, but even Bush flipped on this one.
about the fact that it's reported there are many drilling sites that have been approved but aren't used. More study and development needs to be done on vehicles that use less or no regular fuel, which would make more sense than the constant back and forth on drilling sites, no drilling sites, dependency on foreign oil - on and on.
I think stopping dependency on foreign oil is very possible. As a matter of fact countries in South America (countries that the United States would say are much more behind in technology than they are) have been using various technologies to power their lifestyles. Only you ignorant Americans with your vast intelligence can't see that your own government is screwing you over and have been screwing you over for these Oil Companies for the decades. Barack Obama is trying to do something that has never been done before and for your own good I might add. Anyway, as old King Louis IV used to say, 'We shall see.'
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SP4: Go Figure....Aug 4th, 2008 - 21:15:16
...if we use 16 million barrels a day, and we import 70% of that, we'd have to reduce our consuption 1.12 million bbls a DAY, EACH year for TEN years, with no gorwth in the figure.
This would mean adding an ANWR to our output (800,000 bbls DAILY,)EACH year, for 10 years!
Or
doubling ethanol output annually for...5(?) years?!
Obama counts on you not knowing this. It is also a glaring statement on how little he actually grasps the issue.
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