energy bill

This was a strange speech, y'all ... it's not often that the Presidential nominee gets upstaged by his VP pick. But I think that happened tonight.

John "McSame" McCain claims that Obama believes he is the "anointed one" to save our country at our hour of need. Yet Senator Obama said last week that this campaign is not about him. It's about us. And pray tell, what did John McSame tell us tonight?

He told us that he's the better choice to be President because he was a prisoner of war. That being a prisoner of war made him love America more, which means he's the better man to be President than Barack Obama ever will be. I've never quite understood that logic, but I guess it's because I'm not a Republican.

McSame also LIED to us tonight. Not just once. Several times. I'll lay out some of the BIG ones for ya:

McSame told us that "I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them."

REALITY: Obama Will Cut Taxes, McCain Will Raise Them

• "The Tax Policy Center, a research group run by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, has done the most detailed analysis of the Obama and McCain tax plans, and it has published a series of fascinating tables.

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Even as the price of oil continues to fall and is now $35 a barrel below its peak, even as a "Gang of 10" is forming in the Senate to include lifting a ban on offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive energy plan, the House GOP is planning an all out assault on this issue when Congress returns from recess Sept. 8th.

Because a new federal budget is not in place, a continuing resolution must be passed by the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept 30th or the government will shut down. The House GOP is planning to attach an amendment to the CR calling for lifting the offshore drilling ban.

This would force an up-or-down vote on the issue. If the Dems try to pass the CR under a rule prohibiting amendments, that would require a

2/3 majority which obviously won't happen because it would require 55 GOP votes.

Now, I think the smart thing to do would be for Obama and all the Dems to get behind the compromise, comprehensive energy bill in the Senate, while painting the House GOP as beholden to the oil companies.

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It appears the McCain campaign has gotten a bit of a break in the energy wars, with OpenSecrets.org issuing a new report that says Obama has received more from execs and employees at the very biggest oil companies than McCain has...

While McCain has raised considerably more money from this unpopular industry, CRP was surprised to notice that it's actually Obama who has received more from the pockets of employees at several of Big Oil's biggest and most recognizable companies. Tallying contributions by employees in the industry and their families, we found that Exxon, Chevron and BP have all contributed more money to Obama than to McCain.

The RNC quickly rushed out a statement hammering Obama over the report. "Barack Obama's attacks on John McCain demonstrate very poor judgment on his part, given that he voted for the 2005 energy bill and John McCain did not, and given that he has taken the most money from Big Oil's very biggest," emailed RNC spokesperson Liz Mair.

It isn't every day that the Repubs use the phrase "Big Oil" -- are we seeing mockery of Dem rhetoric, or the appropriation of it?

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Obama Ad: We Can't Afford Another President In Big Oil's Pocket
The Obama campaign has announced this new TV ad, which ties John McCain to both the oil companies and to George W. Bush. "After one president in the pocket of Big Oil, we can't afford another," the announcer says:

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After the break is the complete text of remarks on energy policy prepared for delivery by Barack Obama in Dayton today. Notably, Obama frames U.S. dependence on fossil fuels as a national security issue, pins McCain with the failure of Congress to address the issue over the last 26 years, says that "the history of gas tax holidays is that the prices go up to fill in the gap, and the big winners end up being the retailers and oil companies," and notes that additional offshore drilling wouldn't produce oil for seven years and even then would have little impact. He then describes his own energy plan, which includes:

* A second, $50 billion stimulus package that would send energy rebate checks to every American.

* A $1,000 middle-class tax cut that will go to 95% of all workers and their families.

* A crack down on oil speculators who may be artificially driving up the price of oil.

* A fast-track $150 billion of investment in a clean energy fund to help create the fuel-efficient cars and alternative sources of energy that will secure this nation and jumpstart a green economy.

* Doubling fuel mileage standards over the next two decades utilizing much of the technology we have on the shelf today – a step that will save this country half a trillion gallons of gasoline, the equivalent of cutting the price of a gallon of gas in half. And I will provide tax credits and loan guarantees for our automakers to help them make this transition.

* A Venture Capital Fund that will provide $50 billion over five years to get the most promising clean energy technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace.

* Requiring that 25% of U.S. electricity comes renewable sources by 2025, and that the U.S. produce two billion gallons of advanced cellulosic biofuels by 2013. (Pointedly, he says that the U.S. will "also invest in finding cleaner ways to use coal, our nation’s most abundant energy source, and safer ways to use nuclear power and store nuclear waste."

* Using the U.S. clean energy fund to invest over $1 billion a year to re-tool and modernize our factories and build the advanced technology cars, trucks and SUVs of the future.

* Calling on businesses, government, and the American people to make America 50% more energy efficient by 2030.

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