MC CAIN ON ENERGY: IS IT A LEXINGTON PLAN, OR MORE OF HIS LEXICON?

John McCain, in a speech on Wednesday (he doesn't work weekends), launched his so-called Lexington Project—"named for the town where Americans asserted their independence once before." "Let it begin today with this commitment: In a world of hostile and unstable suppliers of oil, this nation will achieve strategic independence by 2025," he said. What does "strategic independence" mean? It's not quite clear. But the phrase sounds pretty good, and rather more inspiring than Obama's narrower proposal to "reduce our dependence on foreign oil and reduce oil consumption overall by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels, by 2030," or to "reduce the energy intensity of our economy by 50 percent" by the same year.

McCain's new plan largely consists of 4 salient points; lift the ban on offshore drilling and let each state determine whether or not to drill, the building of 45 new nuclear plants by 2030, a $5,000.00 tax credit to anyone willing to purchase a zero-emission automobile, and a $300 million award to the developer of a new fuel cell automobile battery which is viable for mass American consumer usage. McCain said the new automobile battery should have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."

McCain's remarks came a day after his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, called for greater oversight for energy traders. Obama's campaign said many economists believe speculation could be adding between $20 and $50 to the price of a barrel of oil; the price per barrel closed near $135 on Friday.

Barack Obama has slammed the so called "Lexington" McCain plan in the following ways...."What Washington has done is what Washington always does: It's peddled false promises, irresponsible policy and cheap gimmicks that might get politicians through the next election but won't lead America toward the next generation of renewable energy." "For decades, John McCain has been a part of this failure in Washington."
Obama commended McCain for speaking out on climate change but said that "time and time again, he has opposed investing in the alternative sources of energy that have helped fuel some of the very same projects and businesses that he's now highlighting in this campaign." When John F. Kennedy decided that we were going to put a man on the moon, he didn't put a bounty out for some rocket scientist to win -- he put the full resources of the United States government behind the project and called on the ingenuity and innovation of the American people -- not just in the private sector but also in the public sector."

Obama said his energy plan would include taxing profits from oil companies and using that money to help families pay their energy bills. He also said he would "close the loophole that allows corporations like Enron to engage in unregulated speculation that ends up artificially driving up the price of oil."
Obama said he would raise the fuel standards and invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in alternate sources of energy. "My entire energy plan will produce three times the oil savings that John McCain's ever could -- and what's more, it will actually decrease our dependence on oil while his will only grow our addiction further," he said