LIVEBLOG: Candidate Barack Obama in Lansing MI

Presidential candidate Barack Obama

[Ed. note: Ed Brayton and Todd Heywood have been on site at the Lansing Center, providing live coverage of the Obama campaign event today. Earlier coverage, Obama's speech and photos can be found below the jump.]
12:26 pm — Standing out front of the Lansing Center, one young man was on his cell phone excitedly telling his mother that he got to shake Obama’s hand.
The senator remains in the building at this time.

12:14 pm — Obama: In just ten years all these steps will reduce the amount of oil we import from the middle east to nothing.
If these sound like far off goals, think about what we can do in the next couple of years.
Senator McCain will not take the steps I laid out today. His plan lays out very little in renewable energy.
John McCain raise more than $1 million from Big Oil just last week.
His initial opposition to the oil compromise, he opposed it because it took away tax breaks from the oil corporations.
Make no mistake the oil companies have put their bets on Senator McCain.
That’s not the future I see for America
I wont pretend we cant achieve them without sacrifice and investment, because they are
But we must if we want to keep America safe and prosperous in the 21st century.
We can continue down the path we are on.
We can keep sending billions of dollars to middle east dictators.
We can uncover every barrel of oil under our continent.
That is one option.
Or we can choose another option and build a 21st century
We can watch as millions of new jobs for Americans are created
We can lead the world, secure our nation and meet our moral obligations to future generations
This is the choice we face in the months ahead.
This is the opportunity we must seize, and this might be our last chance to seize it
Think about how World War II forced us to climb out of an economy of depression into a war economy.
Think about how when the engineers told John F. Kennedy they didn’t know how to send a man to the moon and he said they would find a way.
I ask you to draw hope from the improbable hope this nation has grown on. [End]
(filed by Todd Heywood)

Photo outside Lansing Center prior to event

12:08 pm — Obama: You will have a partner in the White House to make sure innovation thrives
the second step is to make sure 10 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term.
I will extend the production tax credit for five years.
It was because of this credit that wind power grew 45%.
Michigan has the second best potential for wind production in the country.

I will invest federal resources into developing new biofuels.

By 2022 I will make it my goal to have 20 percent of our fuel in biofuels.
Each new biofuels production facility is 120 jobs, and $70 million into the economy.
In addition we will find safer ways to use nuclear energy.
We will also use coal plants. All this new energy technology never makes it out of research because there is too much cost and risk.
The first step I will take will be reduce our demand for electricity by 15% by 2015. It will save us $230 billion.

12:00 pm — Obama:  There are 50,000 jobs in clean energy in Michigan.
Now’s the time to accelerate that growth both here and across the nation.
In ten years we will end the entire need for oil from the middle east and Venezuela.
To do this we will invest 150 billion dollars over the next ten years, and leverage private capital to create new jobs in clean energy.
First, we will help states like Michigan build fuel efficient cars on the road.
Invest in the technology to get plug in electric hybrid cars.
We will invest in more research and development.
We will leverage funding to bring the cars to market.
we will give consumers $750 rebates for buying these cars.
we’re going to get the automakers here in Michigan back on track.
They aren’t going to have to beg and plead for the attention of the White House.

11:52 am — Obama continues: Back then (1970’s) global warming was an opinion of a few scientists, now it is a reality.
Despite it all we are still talking about our oil addiction. Why is that in all that time he did little to reduce our addiction on oil?
It’s important to remember he has been part of that failure. And now after years of inaction, and rising frustration the only option he is offering is offshore drilling.
It has become a center piece for him.
If we opened up new areas today, we wouldn’t see new oil for 7 years.
Senator McCain said it would give “psychological” relief.
T. Boone Pickens, who is calling for new investments in alternative energy. He said this is one emergency we can’t drill our way out of.
It is a political solution the type of which Washington has been giving us for years.
I believe we should give every family in America a $1,000 tax rebate and we should pay for it from the record profits of oil companies.
(crowd goes wild with applause)
We should invest in the technology that will help us recover more oil from existing locations.
we should sell 70 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve which in the past has reduced prices in two weeks.
These are all short term steps we can take to provide families immediate relief and I know you need immediate relief.
But none of these steps will end our oil addiction. We have to make a serious nationwide committment to new sources of energy and we need to do it right now.
Last week Washington finally made some progress on this. (filed by Todd Heywood)

11:48 am - The announcement of Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero’s presence is met with applause and boos.
Obama speaking now: Right now our brave new women are fighting two wars while the terrorists are planning their next attack.
For too long our leaders in Washington have been unwilling or unable to do soemthing about it.
This election is the most important election of our lifetime.
The choices we make in November and the next few years will shape the next decade if not the next century.
What are we going to do about our addiction to oil?
This addiction is the most dangerous addiction facing America today;
it is a threat that goes to the very heart of who we are and who we will be.
Will we allow ourselves to be held hostage by the whims of tyrants?
Will America watch as the clean energy jobs flourish in countries like Spain or will we create them here?
As Americans we know the answer to these questions; we know we cannot sustain these fuel costs.

11:42 am — The audience has just sung happy birthday to Obama. He thanked them, then said, “There is no other place I would rather be on my birthday than at the Lansing Center.” (Todd Heywood)

11:40 am — AP is reporting that Obama is proposing a swap from the strategic oil reserves, releasing light crude and replacing it with heavy crude. Light crude is more easily refined into gasoline than heavy crude. We anticipate that he will discuss this proposal this morning. Another speaker is on stage right now, Obama is expected soon. (filed by Ed Brayton)

10:32 am — Todd Heywood notes that Republican state representative Lawrence Wenke is on hand at the Obama event; he has a video interview with Wenke to follow shortly in a separate post.

10:25 am — Todd snapped a pic of Lansing Fire Department truck; they were called to the Lansing Center after a Lansing Police car burst into flames.

(I feel safer already, don’t you?)

McCain supporters rally outside Obama event

McCain supporters stand in front of the Lansing Center.

A photo of Ben Morlock (white T-shirt) discussing visibility strategies with other Republicans and supporters of Appeals Court Judge candidate Eric Doster is pending and will be posted shortly.

(filed by LoRayne Apo-Joynt)

10:00 am — There are several small groups of Republican protesters outside the venue. One is a woman and her two children holding a McCain sign. Another is a group of college kids from the MSU College Republicans. Some are holding signs supporting Eric Doster for judge.

We were told by another reporter that a Lansing police car caught on fire outside the venue earlier, but we haven’t heard how or why it happened or any details.

Todd has pictures of the protesters.  (filed by Ed Brayton)