Watching the evening news gave me a sense of how American auto makers just don’t get it. Dodge is offering a new program where you get a special card and receive $2.99-a-gallon unleaded gasoline or diesel for up to 12,000 miles or three years. The program is called “Refuel America,” but if they want to help “stabilize” gasoline prices as they claim, how about developing vehicles that outdo national miles-per-gallon standard? Gas isn’t just expensive because it’s $4-a-gallon but because fuel efficiency standards are so laughable.
Which brings me to today’s spat over the nation’s energy crisis between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. The latter is nearing the end of his two-week economic tour, so McCain is seizing the opportunity to change the national discussion and focus on energy. Today, he released this ad:
Makes McCain out to be a regular Al Gore-lovin’ environmentalist, doesn’t it? Also underscores how McCain is not only running against Obama but against George W. Bush, since the president and McCain share the same party. McCain doesn’t want to appear as as if he’s running for “Bush’s third term,” as the Obamacrats are saying.
I think McCain’s strategist needs a lesson on situational irony as well as a better scheduler. Because there’s McCain, the aging Edward Abbey-type standing in the rust-colored desert with turquoise skies above on the same day he delivers an address in Houston, the lion’s den of America’s oil companies. The topic? From the Associated Press:
He called for reform of the laws governing the oil futures trading market, and drew a standing ovation when he repeated his day-old support for an end to the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. He favors allowing states to decide whether to explore offshore waters.
That’s right. McCain portays himself as the savior of the environment, then says let’s drill in the ocean beds. On one hand, it’s McCain at his best, showing a willingness to compromise by drawing a line against drilling on land like ANWR, by telling auto makers they have to raise fuel-efficiency standards and by saying climate change is real and manmade. It’s also McCain at his most vulnerable as a presidential candidate, wanting to have it both ways, sending confusing messages to an electorate that prefers clarity from their candidates.
McCain may have hit on what could prove to be the endgame compromise in the battle over oil prices. Environmentalists and pro-oil interests may have to meet halfway, and that seems to be ocean floor drilling while keeping ANWR and other continental sources pristine; that is if both sides are willing to compromise.
The Arizona Republican also targeted Obama’s desire to impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies, the revenue earmarked for alternative energy development. McCain’s attack, though, poses a problem, according to the AP:
McCain’s bid to chart a middle course on a major issue hit a bump, though, when he criticized Obama for proposing a windfall profits tax, despite saying last month he would consider the same proposal.
