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Obama, McCain abandon energy stances

Candidates parry on 9/11

By Christina Bellantoni (Contact) and Stephen Dinan (Contact) | Wednesday, June 18, 2008

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As voters pay ever-higher gas prices, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are fleeing from their previous energy policy stances, with the Republican embracing expanded drilling and the Democrat seeking to punish energy companies he voted to reward just three years ago.

The presidential candidates also traded fire over how to pursue the war on terrorism, with Mr. McCain's camp accusing Mr. Obama of "a perfect manifestation of a Sept. 10th mind-set" for praising the way the nation treated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as a law-enforcement matter. Mr. Obama countered that Republicans' war on terrorism hasn't produced Osama bin Laden.

"I don't think they have much standing to suggest they've learned a lot of lessons from 9/11," Mr. Obama told reporters.

Mr. McCain traveled Tuesday to Houston, the nation's oil capital, to reverse positions and propose an end to the federal ban on expanded offshore drilling. He also took the opportunity to blast Mr. Obama's call for a windfall profits tax on oil companies, saying it was a solution straight from the 1970s, even though the senator from Arizona was open to such a tax just last month.

"[Senator Obama] wants a windfall profits tax on oil, to go along with the new taxes he also plans for coal and natural gas. If the plan sounds familiar, it's because that was President Jimmy Carter's big idea, too, and a lot of good it did us," Mr. McCain said. "Now, as then, all a windfall profits tax will accomplish is to increase our dependence on foreign oil, and hinder exactly the kind of domestic exploration and production we need."

Mr. Obama blasted Mr. McCain for going to Texas to "tell a group of Houston oil executives exactly what they wanted to hear."

"Much like his gas tax gimmick that would leave consumers with pennies in savings, opening our coastlines to offshore drilling would take at least a decade to produce any oil at all, and the effect on gasoline prices would be negligible at best since America only has 3 percent of the world´s oil," he said.

Mr. Obama this week has been attacking a 2005 energy bill as a symbol of Washington's counterproductive corporate giveaways, even though he voted for that measure. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, used that vote against Mr. Obama during their heated primary battle, saying in New Hampshire that if you "rail against" tax breaks for big oil but "you voted for Dick Cheney's energy bill" in 2005, "that´s not change."

Mr. McCain also voted against the energy bill, calling it "a grab-bag of corporate favors," and Republicans slammed Mr. Obama in a Web ad Tuesday for hypocrisy on the bill.

The campaigns acknowledge that high gasoline prices have become the dominant issue, and polling shows most Americans are ready for anything that could bring relief.