Where do they Stand? - Presidential candidates and energy issues
Story Created:
Oct 6, 2008 at 11:22 AM EST
Story Updated:
Oct 6, 2008 at 5:15 PM EST
(WKTV) - Before election day, we are breaking down the issues for you on where Senators Barack Obama and John McCain stand, that way you can be more informed when it does come time to vote.
In this week's "Where They Stand", we are looking at energy. With the cost of gas the way it is, and now with the looming cost of heating your home, energy is high up on people's lists of important issues.
The way to become less dependent on foreign oil is to produce more oil domestically, and both candidates say the way to do that is by increasing offshore drilling.
Both John McCain and Barack Obama were against increased drilling, until the past few months. McCain flip-flopped in June, and Obama did the same in August.
McCain now says "drill baby drill", as can be heard by his chanting supporters during each of his campaign trips across the country. Obama is also for increased drilling, but he remains skeptical on how much it will help consumers.
Hamilton College Professor of Government Phil Klinkner says overall the two candidates really have similar views when it comes to energy, he says "they're going to emphasize this or that piece of their proposals to show some difference, to show they're not really doing what the other candidate is, but when you take the big picture there really isn't much of a difference between the two candidates."
Both candidates favor putting more money into "near term" technologies such as nuclear energy and clean coal, as well as "long term" technologies like solar, wind and hydrogen power.
Professor Klinkner says the big difference in their energy thinking is on whether the Government should tax the big oil companies. Obama wants to enforce a windfall profits tax on the companies so that Americans can get a one thousand dollar a year energy rebate to offset gas prices.
McCain is totally against this, he says to keep American companies in business, you can not penalize them by taxing them even more, he says that could make foreign oil even more attractive in the open market. Klinkner adds "there is also a specific debate about oil companies and whether they should be able to pocket all of the profits from a spike in oil when it has such immediate consequences for consumers."
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is often mentioned as well. It's a supply that the government has built up, that is to be used only in emergencies. It's estimated there is enough to keep the entire country powered for 60 days. Obama wants to tap into the SPR to lower the cost of gasoline temporarily, McCain says leave it alone.
Klinkner says tapping the reserve "could make the difference between about 8 to 10 cents a gallon I think, some things like that, but again estimates really vary, and it all depends on how much you are going to put on the market, if they put all of it on the market, it could have a huge impact short term, so even if it's a large effect, it wouldn't last very long, maybe a month or a couple of months".
Again Klinkner says for the most part, energy is the one issue where the two candidates basically have very similar philosophies.
Next week we will break down the issue of Healthcare, and this is one issue where McCain and Obama have very different philosophies.
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