McCain Facing Opposition on Offshore Drilling
June 25, 2008
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John McCain ran into some tough opposition Tuesday over his support to allow offshore drilling. Earlier this week McCain said he would allow offshore drilling to help ease the high price of energy and gasoline, though this would surely increase our carbon footprint.
McCain appeared at a roundtable discussion in Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and others, to discuss how to wean America off its dependence on oil. The discussion came only days after McCain proposed a $300 million prize for a better car battery. Outside the meeting was a group of protestors that waived signs saying “We can’t drill our way out of the energy crisis” and “Not off our coast.”
Santa Barbara was the location of a major oil spill in 1969.
Michael Feeney, one of the members of the discussion, said “It makes me nervous to think about those who are proposing to drain America’s offshore oil and gas reserves as quickly as possible in hopes of driving down the price of gasoline.”
While he did not say this to McCain directly, it was clearly directed at him only days after the Senator and presidential nominee said he supported offshore drilling.
Feeney also criticized McCain’s plan to speed up the building of new nuclear plants. Speaking in Nevada, Barack Obama also came out against McCain’s nuclear plan, which would see 45 new reactors built by 2030. While nuclear energy does not generate any carbon emissions, and thus is great for fighting global warming, it raises concerns over safety, particularly around the issue of disposing of the nuclear waste.
McCain stuck up for his nuclear proposal, saying “The technology is there. The Europeans are doing it. It’s safe.”
With gasoline hovering at $4 per gallon and most Americans feeling the pinch at the pumps, energy has become a central theme of the election as the two candidates fight to show that they would do the most to cut the nation’s carbon footprint and fight global warming.
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