REFLECTING the sensitivity of high petrol prices, the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, has unveiled a new energy package that includes $US1000 ($1085) for households to help meet high energy costs and a plan to take 70 million barrels from the strategic oil reserve.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But Senator Obama's new package, unveiled on Monday, has drawn cries that he is flip-flopping on energy policy. He had originally opposed accessing any of the 700 million barrels of oil stored in caverns along the Texas and Louisiana coast.
He had also opposed drilling offshore, but has now said he will negotiate on it, provided it is part of a comprehensive energy policy.
Announcing the energy package in Lansing, Michigan, Senator Obama, who turned 47 on Monday, has also set a goal of 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on American roads by 2015, and offered a $US7000 tax credit to buyers and a "major commitment" of $US4 billion to help domestic carmakers meet the goal.
Senator Obama plans to finance the package with a windfall tax on oil companies. In an unusually pointed attack, he accused his rival, John McCain, of being in the pocket of the oil industry. He later repeated the criticism in television ads.
Donations from the oil industry to the Republican campaign have surged since Senator McCain said he planned to end the embargo on coastal drilling.
Senator Obama's package is likely to be well received in Detroit, Michigan, home of the US car industry and a critical state in the election.
Michigan voted Democrat in 2004 but has been hit hard by the economy and is being targeted by Senator McCain.
Two carmakers, Ford and General Motors, last week reported big losses despite recent retrenchments and said the downturn was biting hard after years of consecutive losses.
"I know how much the auto industry and the auto workers of this state have struggled over the last decade or so," Senator Obama said in his speech. "But I also know where I want the fuel-efficient cars of tomorrow to be built: not in Japan, not in China, but right here … in the state of Michigan."
He also set a goal of ending US imports of oil from the Middle East and Venezuela in 10 years and warned that years of inaction in Washington had created a major strategic problem.
Senator Obama defended his policy change on the strategic oil reserve by saying he had heard the pain of Americans and believed it would drive down petrol prices, which have topped $US4 a gallon ($1.10 a litre).
Senator McCain was due in Michigan yesterday to visit the Fermi II nuclear plant on Lake Erie to promote nuclear energy. He has insisted it be part of the US strategy to reduce carbon emissions and is aiming to make this a major fault line in the election. Senator Obama has been equivocal on nuclear power.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan Congress group is working on an energy package it hopes will bridge the partisan divide. It favours offshore drilling and many measures that will be supported by Democrats, such as renewable energy and the development of fuel-efficient cars.
